


Lorenz Hellman Gloucester IN: The Big Game

by XavierTeatime



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Humor, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24764803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XavierTeatime/pseuds/XavierTeatime
Summary: In a normal year at Garreg Mach Monastery - that is, one without bloodthirsty cultists running amok or a revolutionary Empress seeking a new world order - the biggest source of excitement comes from the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.A year of studying, making friends, forging alliances, building rivalries, and finding love culminates in an all-out mock war where only one class will be left standing.Lorenz Hellman Gloucester is going to see to it that class is his, or die trying.A "no crazy plot stuff" retelling of White Clouds from Lorenz's PoV.
Relationships: Flayn/Claude von Riegan, Hilda Valentine Goneril/Seteth, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Lysithea von Ordelia
Comments: 24
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, and welcome to my latest attempt at a serial Fire Emblem fanfiction!
> 
> I was hoping to post this first chapter on Lorenz's birthday, but fell behind. Not very noble of me, I know. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy. Any and all comments and critiques are welcome and appreciated. Here's where I would put a rose emoji if I knew how to do that.

Last night, after unpacking his things into the dorm room that would be his home for the next 12 moons, Lorenz took a moment to stand in front of the mirror and address himself.

“Lorenz Hellman Gloucester,” he said, carefully enunciating every syllable of his full name, “look at you. You are, without a doubt, the best catch the masses at this academy will hope to reel in all year. Your uniform? Impeccably steamed. Your fair? As unblemished as the day you were born. Your hair? At such sharp angles you could cut silk with it. Noble and peasant alike will quiver at your passage. The professors will be awed by your skill.” He licked his right thumb and used it to clean an infinitesimally small smudge on the mirror. “And by the time you leave here, you will have your pick of wives from the most promising young maidens in all of Fodlan.”

It was a good speech. If he had received it from someone else he respected as much as he respected himself, he would have given it a standing ovation. Yes. Yes! Tomorrow he was going to take the academy by storm and leave his mark on the pages of history. For generations to come, the students of Garreg Mach would know the name of Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, noblest noble to ever grace these halls!

This morning, upon waking up, he shrieked.

If he could have rehearsed, he would have gone with a scream. Something deep, manly, like a bellowing warcry, a challenge to those around him. A scream that would resonate in their bones and leave them knowing this was not a man to be trifled with.

But he was taken by surprise, and so he shrieked. His voice cracked as he scrambled backwards, pulling his bedsheets with him.

There was a girl laying next to him, looking up at him with big, watery eyes.

“Wow, Lorenz, last night was amazing,” she said.

“Wh…” Lorenz needed a moment to collect himself after that. In a flash, his brain worked through a series of cunning rhetorical quips to disarm this invader, but his mouth got tired of waiting and just blurted out, “WHAT?”

There was a pause in which absolute silence reigned.

“Oh, Goddess, I’m just kidding!” the woman finally said, laughing merrily to herself. “We didn’t do anything. I just got here. You forgot to lock your door last night, and you seemed friendly enough, at least from what I could hear when you were talking to yourself--”

“You…” Lorenz blinked a few times, a blush rising up his face from mortification and embarrassment. “You could hear me talking to myself?”

“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” the girl said, putting the emphasis on trying, thus making it clear that eavesdropping was nonetheless what she had done. “It was quite the pep talk. I thought maybe you could inspire me like that!”

Lorenz stared at her a bit longer. This was wrong. Yes, eight hours ago he had been hyping himself up to win a wife sometime over the course of the upcoming year. Having a woman he didn’t know in his bed the next morning seemed like the wrong way to go about it. And yet, a nagging voice at the back of his mind was yelling something at him. He knew this girl, with her grinning, mischievous face, long pink braids, strong yet aggressively feminine figure.

“Holst!” he finally said.

“Ew,” the girl responded. “I’m much cuter than him.”

“You are the sister of Holst Goneril,” Lorenz said, sitting upright even straighter, still clinging furiously to his bedsheet. He wasn’t naked under it, but something about letting this woman see even his bed clothes felt like it would send him down a bad path. “The most feared and respected general of the Leicester Alliance. He is a legend.”

“Yawn,” the girl responded, rolling around on her back on the ever-increasing free portion of his bed as Lorenz fled to the corner. “Guess I can look forward to a year of that. People telling me my own family tree as if I didn’t already know. Fuuunnnnn!!!!”

“Which would make you...Helga Goneril,” Lorenz ventured.

“Hilda,” she corrected him. “I should slap you for that. Inviting a woman into your room without even knowing her name. For shame!”

“I’m sorry for not remembering correctly,” Lorenz said, sincerely, before remembering he was not the bad guy here. “Wait, I did not invite you! You literally broke into my room!”

Hilda stared at him unflinchingly as he lobbed this accusation at her. She twirled her finger around in circles on his mattress.

“So...you wanna fool around, or…”

“Please leave!”

Hilda laughed, stood up, and stretched like a cat, all four limbs pushing to their very limits. Lorenz tried very pointedly not to look at her as she did it, and failed.

“Alright,” she said. “But not all the promising young maidens here are going to be as nice to you as I just was.” She winked, and slid out the door.

Lorenz, sweating profusely, took a moment to collect his senses, and then began to hurriedly dress for the day.

Once his hair was perfectly aligned the way he liked it, and his rose corsage was pinned to his vest (the perfect symbol of power and virility), he opened the door and prepared to face the day. Admittedly his encounter with Hilda had taken the wind out of his sails a bit, but surely not everyone could be quite as...rambunctious as that girl had been, right?

Right?

It was the first day of the Great Tree Moon. The air was brisk and the grass crisp with dew. Lorenz blinked his eyes a few times to adjust to the sunlight, and took in his surroundings. The night before he hadn’t had much time to see the place, simply scurrying from the gates where his father had dropped him off to his room so he could unpack. In the daylight, he could see the beautiful architecture of the Garreg Mach monastery-slash-officer’s-academy. Dorm rooms for the students and professors stretched off in both directions. Some students, like him, were only now stumbling out of their rooms to face the day, while others were already out and about exploring the campus, reuniting with friends, or making new ones.

“Food is that way! If you want to eat, walk that way! Eating is good! I recommend it!” cried a woman, ushering students east away from the dorms and towards the large mess hall. “Breakfast! Can’t kick ass without a good breakfast in ya!”

Lorenz approached her. She had shoulder length blonde hair, and wore the bright white armour of the Knights of Series. Looking down the yard he could see other Knights marshalling students and helping point them to wherever they might want to go.

“Hello, madame,” Lorenz said with a flourishing bow. While his head was down, he missed the condescending smirk the Knight gave him. “I am Lorenz, heir to House Gloucester. I simply wish to make sure I head to the correct mess hall. Is this the one for nobles like myself to dine at, or the one for the commoner students?”

The woman stared at him. Rather than answering his question, she said, “Alliance, huh? You ain’t happened to meet your House leader yet, have you? What was his name...Von Riegan?”

The question made Lorenz irrationally angry. He had never actually met this Von Riegan character, though of course everyone knew OF him. He had swooped in out of nowhere sometime in the last year to claim the position of heir to the entire Leicester Alliance. Many people thought the entire thing stank to the heavens, Lorenz’s father chief among them, and Lorenz was at an age where his views on politics were mostly a reflection of his dad’s.

“No, I haven’t,” Lorenz snapped. “Shouldn’t that be your job, to keep track of us students?”

The Knight laughed. “Son, my JOB is to use a giant goddess-damned glowing sword to chop the enemies of Lady Rhea into tiny pieces. Helping little snots like you get to the mess hall is just something I do on my days off for fun.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder towards the mess hall again. “I recommend you get moving before they run out of the good stuff.”

Lorenz did not have to be told twice, once he realized it was the legendary Thunder Catherine doing the telling.

“Oh Lorenzy-poo! Yoo-hoo!” called an all too familiar voice. As he entered the mess hall, Hilda Goneril found his side once again. “I saw that whole exchange. Boy, you really have a way with people, huh?”

“Is invading my privacy fun for you? Are you having fun?” Lorenz asked.

Hilda grinned. “Oh, yes, I really am, thank you for asking.”

They stood in line and waited to be served. Lorenz received some eggs beaten to a scramble, with a medley of vegetables stirred in. He glanced around for a spot to sit suitable for one of his social stature, but was suddenly moving on his own accord as Hilda had grabbed his arm and was pulling him towards the closest empty seats.

“You can’t just sit at the first place you see! You have to be strategic! It’s like chess!” Lorenz protested, quietly enough that no one would hear but her.

“Okay, well, counterpoint: I’m hungry, so shut up,” Hilda responded.

Lorenz found her logic infuriating but hard to debate.

He took a few bites of his meal, and looked up into the top of a blue head of hair. He squinted. The girl across from him appeared to be bowing before him, hiding her face.

“Hello?” he called out. “I assure you, there is no need to hide.”

“I dunno, Lorenz, you’re pretty intimidating,” Hilda said, laughing at herself. Lorenz poked her with a fork.

“I-I-I’m sorry,” the blue-haired woman across from them said, looking up only slightly. “I just, uhm, I feel very badly, about what happened last night.”

Lorenz blinked at her a few times. Was this some conspiracy Hilda had set up, to find another woman willing to pretend he had behaved boorishly his first night on campus? But as he continued to stare at her, a memory did come back to him.

“You know, I won the Battle of the Eagle Lion for the Golden Deer class when I was a student here,” his father had said as their cart rolled to a halt in front of the gates to Garreg Mach.

“Yes, I heard,” Lorenz said with a sigh. “About a hundred times. From you.”

A hand grabbed his throat. Not viciously, but not with undue care and tenderness either.

“Listen to me, boy,” Count Gloucester said. “The Alliance is in a precarious position. Our roles are not set in stone by centuries of precedent, like our counterparts in the Empire or the Kingdom. We must EARN our station, and WORK to keep it. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Lorenz said, his entire body stiff as he avoided looking his father in the eyes.

“You will not embarrass me or my name during your stay here. You will win the Battle of the Eagle and Lion for the Golden Deer, as I did, and all will know the Gloucester house remains one to never be trifled with.”

“Yes,” Lorenz said again.

As soon as he and his father had said their polite but cold goodbyes, he had stepped off the cart, retrieved his luggage, and walked as fast as he could without being perceived to be running.

He had slammed into someone. A woman’s voice cried out, “Oh, I’m sorry--!!” but he ignored it. Furiously blinking back tears, he fled to his room, already planning the speech he would tell himself to boost his own spirits.

Now, that woman he had rudely walked into and left aside the night before was sitting in front of him. He felt his face redden again, this time with great shame.

“Oh...no, my lady, you have no need to apologize,” he said. “It was my fault. I was...distracted by other things. I hope I did not hurt you.”

The woman looked up at this. She smiled slightly. “No, I wasn’t hurt. Th-thank you. Were you?”

“No, though I fear my pride is hurt now at learning what a boor I was.” He extended his hand. “Lorenz Hellman Gloucester.”

The woman stared at his hand for a moment, before letting out a soft “oh!” as if she just realized what this was. She accepted the handshake. “M-Marianne Von Edmund.”

“Von Edmund,” Lorenz said, approvingly. “Yes, I had heard the Margrave had adopted a daughter recently. That must be you. Your father is quite the rising star in Alliance politics.”

Marianne nodded politely, albeit she still looked deeply uncomfortable.

“Awwww,” Hilda said, resting her head on Lorenz’s shoulder and looking up at him. “Look at you! Making friends already!”

“This is Hilda Goneril,” Lorenz said, “a woman who could clearly use a lesson in manners from someone like you, Miss Edmund.”

Marianne blushed at this, as if she had offended Hilda by way of simply being alive for anyone to compare them to her. “S-sorry,” she muttered, so soft Lorenz could barely hear her.

“So, it seems we three of the Leicester Alliance have all found each other this morning by chance. Given that we are to be classmates, perhaps this is good. We will have to learn to work alongside one another if we wish to exceed the other classes in the contests to come, particularly the--”

“Battle of the Eagle and Lion?” said a voice that wasn’t him. The seat next to Marianne, and across from Hilda, was pulled back by a young man who helped himself, a large plate of food before him. “Planning your strategies already? I see we of the Blue Lions will have our work cut out for us.”

The young man, strikingly handsome with his messy blonde hair and serious eyes, extended a hand. “Dimitri Alexander Blaiddyd. And you are?”

Lorenz stared at him. This was the kind of moment his father had insisted would make or break him this year. The man - boy, really - sitting across from him could one day be a fierce political rival from a neighboring nation. Or he could be a lifelong friend and ally, a boon to Lorenz and his family’s lands. It all came down to moments like this. The subtle art of diplomacy.

He shook the crown prince of the Kingdom of Faerghus’s hand. “Lorenz Gellman Houster,” he said, and followed it up with, “shit.”

Dimitri laughed. “Lorenz! It is a pleasure to meet you. You know, I have been keeping an eye out for your house leader, the mysterious Claude Von Riegan. I haven’t seen any sign of him yet, though. I don’t suppose you know where he’s hiding?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Lorenz replied, his mood darkening once more as the second conversation of the day was hijacked by a man who wasn’t even here yet. “However, the punctuality of our leader notwithstanding, I agree that you will certainly have your work cut out for you if you wish to defeat the Golden Deer house this year.”

Dimitri paused for a moment as they stared at each other. Then, after a tense moment, the prince laughed. Lorenz laughed as well. Marianne and Hilda joined in. They stopped when Dimitri stabbed his form straight through his plate, shattering it.

“Darn it!” Dimitri said with a sigh. “I’m sorry. This is very embarrassing for me. I don’t know my own strength, I’m afraid. I should clean this up...if you’ll excuse me…”

Lorenz, Hilda, and Marianne looked nervously between themselves. Dimitri had seemed rather sincerely embarrassed at the display, as though it had truly been an accident. Yet given the circumstances, it had also seemed vaguely threatening, a show of his obscene power to the young upstarts.

Perhaps a man who would shatter a plate truly without trying was even more frightening.

“I think I am done eating,” Lorenz announced to the world. “I look forward to seeing you lovely ladies in class.”

He scooted his chair back and attempted to retreat through the crowd before Hilda would have a chance to latch onto him again. He had a nagging feeling that the girl was going to make every attempted social connection an uphill battle.

To the north of the mess hall, more knights were once again ushering students along. This time it was further north past the reception hall that they were being advised to head towards. Listening in on a few conversations, Lorenz overheard that a first day of class assembly was to be held in the cathedral, where all the students would meet their professors and the church faculty. Perhaps even the Archbishop herself!

Though he was certainly excited by such a prospect, Lorenz decided to take it slow and mingle on his way there. Building connections was the true goal here, after all. His classes would be important, yes, but it would be who he knew and trusted at the end of the year that would shape the rest of his life and determine the status of House Gloucester.

Yes, it was crucial that he meet as many new and important--

There was a flurry of motion, and suddenly he was doubled over, a great amount of pressure holding him in place. It had happened so fast, with such irresistible strength, that he hadn’t even had time to cry out in shock or pain.

“Ignatz! Ignatz, look who it is! Holy moly! It’s Lorenz Gloucester!”

Lorenz gagged something unintelligible.

“Uhm, I think you’re blocking off his air supply, Raphael.”

“Oh, oops.”

The pressure let up a bit and Lorenz was able to rush forward out of his accoster’s grip and straighten himself up into a more dignified position.

“I said, it is Lorenz HELLMAN Gloucester,” he snapped. “And then I was going to add ‘you are blocking off my air supply,’ but thankfully your friend--”

He blinked a few times. Both of the cretins standing before him were grinning widely. Lorenz did not like to feel as if he was the butt of a joke.

“If I look a fool, it is because that brute mussed my hair,” he pouted, wishing he had brought a hand mirror with which to re-straighten his perfect angles.

“Lorenz!” the one who had attacked him said again. He was truly a brute of a man, towering over Lorenz vertically as well as horizontally. Yet, despite the fact that he had literally attacked him a moment earlier, his face was as bright and cheerful as a child’s, completely free of any malice or ill intent.

“Lorenz?” the other one repeated, looking at him curiously. If taken together with his larger comrade and averaged out, they would be two normal sized individuals. But while the first was a mountain, this one was barely a curb. Scrawny and nervous looking, he pushed his glasses back up his nose, still smiling with uncertainty in Lorenz’s direction.

“Yes,” Lorenz responded, slowly and nervously. “We have established that I am Lorenz--”

And then it hit him, almost as hard as the big man had literally hit him.

Summer days as a child, running through Gloucester territory with two friends his age. He didn’t get to see them often, as their families traveled a lot, but he would always look forward to those days when he could see his friends--

“Raphael and Ignatz,” Lorenz said out loud. “By the Goddess. It...it’s been years. I had no idea you’d both be enrolled here.”

“Heck yeah!” Raphael said, flexing and striking a pose. It was a bit silly, though Lorenz had to admit he cut a very imposing figure. He briefly wondered what he had been eating to get that big, then realized that, if his old trends had kept up, the answer was likely ‘everything.’

“And I’m also here,” Ignatz added, sidestepping to get out of Raphael’s figurative and literal shadow. “I’m here to become a knight. What I lack in...ah...physique, I hope to make up for in valour and honour.”

Lorenz nodded politely. “That is excellent to hear. It is good to have dreams. It was equally good to see both of you and catch up. But now I am sure we all have places to be--”

“Yeah! We can all head to the assembly at the cathedral together!” Raphael said excitedly. He put one absurdly thick arm around Ignatz’s neck, and before Lorenz could make a run for it, the other arm had grabbed him, and Raphael was striding forward, flanked by his friends-slash-hostages.

Lorenz grimaced, noticing with embarrassment that several people were watching this display and snickering at them. Yes, he had been friends with Raphael and Ignatz once. Yes, those had been some of the most fun days in his entire childhood. Yes, he cherished the memories deeply. But…

But…

They were commoners. And he was a noble. Children frolicking together when they are too young to know better as one thing, but this level of familiarity, now, given the difference in their statuses? It was not appropriate. Far from it. It was downright scandalous.

He attempted to articulate this, but Raphael, in his excitement, had restricted his airflow again, so what he said came out closer to, “ghhhnaaauukkggh.”

“Hey, what the heck is going on up there?” Raphael asked. Lorenz attempted to lift his head enough to see, and sure enough there was some sort of commotion ahead. A small crowd of students, mostly boys, chattering and jeering about something.

“Oh, those bullies,” a woman standing near them said. The commotion was enough to distract Raphael into relaxing his grip, so Lorenz and Ignatz once again took the opportunity to escape and try to pretend they had any dignity left.

“Ahem. What is...happening over there?” Lorenz asked the woman.

She smiled nervously at them. Despite her obvious discomfort at the situation, she had a deeply kind and empathetic face. Her platinum blonde hair flowed freely down past her shoulders.

“From what I can understand, the youngest student ever enrolled at the academy is here this year,” the woman explained. “And some of the other students are...well, they’re being very rude!”

Lorenz strained to hear specific snippets of dialogue from within the crowd. Jeers of, “where’s your teddy bear?” and “do you want your mommy, little girl?” made their way to him.

“I wish I could do something to help, but...I’m just one person,” the woman said with a sigh.

“Yeah. That is too bad,” Raphael said, nodding sadly along with her. Lorenz and Ignatz both turned and looked up at the big man, and waited. Slowly, but surely, like an iceberg drifting into a major shipping lane, realization dawned across his face. “Hey! We’re more than one person! Guys, let’s go!”

“Right,” Lorenz said, rolling up his sleeves. “Picking on those smaller and younger than oneself is utterly intolerable. As a noble, I must stand up for the weakest among my flock.”

“Uh, yeah, and I’ll...also help, for, uh, those reasons,” Ignatz agreed, though he noticeably shrunk back a bit to let Raphael and Lorenz take the lead.

Noble and commoner strode forward, ready to give the crowd of miscreants what-for--

“Ugh. I don’t have TIME for this!”

The air sizzled, and suddenly a half dozen young men were flung through the air, over and past Lorenz and Raphael’s heads. They landed in a neat pile, groaning in pain.

“Wow, we’re really good,” Raphael said.

Lorenz stared at the girl who was now standing alone, no longer accosted by anyone. A brief, unnatural wind was still dying down around her from the magical exertion, her long white hair and black uniform fluttering around her. She slowly looked up and her pale pink eyes locked with Lorenz’s.

“Lysithea Von Ordelia,” Lorenz said, so softly he barely heard himself.

“Lorenz Gloucester,” Lysithea said, nodding slightly. “Wait, I’m sorry. Lorenz HELLMAN Gloucester, right?”

Lorenz smiled. He realized he was still in a fighting pose, his body having not yet fully reacted to the sudden magical expulsion of the ruffians. Slowly he relaxed, and took a step forward.

“It’s been years,” he said. “You look...different.”

Lysithea averted her gaze at this. “Yeah.” She was somber for a moment, and Lorenz worried that her comment had upset her. Then she looked back up at him and smirked. “You look exactly the same. Still styling your hair with a protractor, I see.”

“Lorenz! You know the youngest student to ever enroll here? That’s so cool!” Raphael cheered, slapping Raphael on the back. As Lorenz struggled not to faceplant, Raphael strode forward and offered a gigantic hand for Lysithea to shake. “Raphael Kirsten! If you’re gonna be in the Golden Deer, too, wanna hang out with us?”

Lorenz had never been more horrified at such a shameless lack of diplomacy or tact in his life. Just...asking a girl to hang out with you! Where was the grace? The decorum? Lysithea would surely laugh them straight off the--

“Sure,” Lysithea said.

Oh.

“Goodness, I’m glad that all worked out!” the older woman from earlier said, as she gingerly stepped around the few twitching bullies who had yet to push themselves back to their feet and run for their lives. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. I’m Mercedes. What’s your name?”

Lysithea looked up at her cooly. “Lysithea,” she said. “And I didn’t need your help. Thanks.” She pushed Mercedes aside and stormed off.

Lorenz frowned at this sudden display of bad manners. Actually, now that he thought about it, using magic to fling a half-dozen of her fellow students across the campus could also be described as bad manners, even if they had deserved it. He tried to think back to the Lysithea he had once known as a child. Their territories had bordered each other, so they had spent time together when their parents were meeting for various diplomatic reasons. And then, at some point in the hazy fog of his early teen years, she had just...disappeared from his life. He supposed he had forgotten about her entirely, until seeing her here, in the flesh, with ghost-white hair and frightening magical power.

His Raphael-related instincts were starting to kick in and this time he sidestepped before the big man could slap him on the back again.

“Come on!” Raphael said. “Let’s go catch up with her.”

With Ignatz in tow, the three of them continued on towards the great bridge connecting the reception hall with the cathedral. The bridge was absolutely bustling with activity, as students, academy faculty, church attendants, knights, and custodians made their way back and forth on all manner of tasks. Lorenz took it all in, the medley of cultures, of personalities, the great melting pot of Fodlan right here for him to sip from whenever he wanted. Wait, that sounded weird.

A small-framed girl with messy purple hair was following a butterfly as it wove its way through the crowd. She nearly followed it straight off the side of the bridge until another student, an almost equally small boy with blue hair, grabbed onto her.

“Careful, Bernadetta!” he chided her. “You gotta watch out where you’re going!”

The girl responded by letting out a terrified shriek and running away from him into the crowd at full speed. The young man glanced over, saw Lorenz watching him, and offered a comical shrug before he took off after her.

“Make way! Make way for the great and powerful noble, Ser Ferdinand Von Aegir!”

Now the crowd was parting as a stunningly beautiful young woman with chestnut brown hair wove her way forward, shouting loudly and waving her arms to clear a path. She was followed closely by a well-dressed man with orange hair and a similar posture to what Lorenz himself tried to cultivate.

“Thank you, my dear friend Dorothea, but I assure you that such action is not required! I am more than happy to mingle amongst the common people.” Ferdinand spun around and gave a bow to Lorenz, Raphael, and Ignatz. “Greetings and salutations, friends! I look forward to clashing with you in the year to come!”

“Oh come now, Master Ferdinand, you must not tarry! A man as important and benevolent as yourself must always be punctual!” Dorothea said to him, gently tugging at his arm. She spoke with such a thick and unmistakable sarcasm that Lorenz wondered what kind of idiot could possibly think she was being sincere in her praise.

“My dear Dorothea, your sincere praise is too kind,” Ferdinand said, answering that little mystery. “Until we meet again!” he called out and then he, too, was gone in the crowd.

“What an incredibly strange man,” Ignatz said.

“What an incredibly strange woman,” Raphael added.

“Oh, I’m going to love it here,” Lorenz said with a shiver of excitement.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lorenz meets more of his new classmates. Lysithea is presented with a challenge. Hints of a missing house leader are uncovered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading my words that I wrote! <3

Leonie was sweating.

That was good. She liked sweating.

While the rest of the crowd was moving inexorably in one direction, like fish single-mindedly heading for the part of the river best suited for humping, she was pushing against the crowd, legs and arms pumping, breath coming out of her in ragged bursts, sweat dripping down her forehead. Then she was turning, and heading with the crowd again. Then she was turning again, and once more pushing against them.

Had to get those steps in! She had woken up early, one of the first to rise on the entire campus in fact, and had decided the bridge was a great place to do some laps given the nice cool breeze wafting along way up here. The throngs of people that had started crowding around her were a barely noticed inconvenience.

“-!”

She had strapped some weights to her legs as well, obviously. It was the best way to build strength in addition to endurance. Part of her knew she’d have to work twice as hard against the noble brats here - she’d be surprised if a single other student was as poor or as ignoble of birth as she was - but she also just really, truly enjoyed the strain of pushing herself to the limit, the burning sensation in her muscles telling her she was going to be just that much tougher tomorrow.

“-ie!”

She knew she could be a bit rough around the edges, but she had no intention of starting any shit with the nobles here. While it would certainly be satisfying to kick one of their prissy little asses across the training grounds, her friends and family back home had sacrificed too much to help her secure her place at Garreg Mach. She wasn’t going to let that go to waste, no matter what. She would keep her head down, keep her cool, and not offend or hurt anyone--

“LeonieeEEEAAAUGGH!!”

Oh shit, I killed someone.

Lorenz and Raphael came rushing over.

“Nngh...wh-why…” Ignatz groaned, from the spot on the ground where he was currently doing a rather good impression of roadkill.

“Goddess! I’m so sorry!” Leonie gasped, helping him up and dusting him off. “I didn’t see you there!”

“He called out to you three times you passed by us,” Lorenz said irritably.

“I guess I was really in the zone,” Leonie answered, trying to offer a good-natured smile. Lorenz rolled his eyes at her, which caused her smile to sour.

“Well, it’s good to see you again, Leonie,” Ignatz said, smiling awkwardly. He still looked as if he might pass out any moment. “My family used to do business in Leonie’s home town,” he explained to the others. “Uhm, this is Raphael Kirsten, and that’s Lorenz H-Hellman Gloucester,” he continued, stuttering a bit as Lorenz fixed him with a withering gaze to ensure the crucial middle name was not excluded.

“Hey, a pleasure!” Raphael said, extending his hand to shake. Leonie saw a challenge if ever there was one, and gripped his hand as hard as she could. “Yeow! Nice!” Raphael said, grinning.

“And that there is...Lysithea Von Ordelia,” Ignatz said, indicating the young girl near the back of the group.

“Oh, I’ve heard about you,” Leonie said, stepping forward. “Youngest student ever enrolled at Garreg Mach, right?”

Lysithea brushed some of her long, white hair away from her face, though the wind up on the bridge quickly blew it right back. “That’s right,” Lysithea replied, a bit defensively. “Don’t you dare treat me like a child though, okay?”

Leonie’s eyes lit up. She stuck out her hand for a shake as hearty as the one she had shared with Raphael.

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” she said. “I know what it’s like to be looked down on. Anyone underestimates either of us, they’re in for a real ass kicking, eh?”

Lysithea grinned, which turned into a grimace as Leonie’s handshake crunched the bones of her hand together. “M-maybe...maybe that’s a bit much…” Lysithea gasped.

Leonie laughed and pulled her hand away. “Sorry.”

“Well hey, we’ve got five of us from Leicester! That’s gotta be about half the Golden Deer house, right?” Raphael said.

“I suppose so,” Lorenz agreed. “I ran into two others earlier this morning. Marianne Von Edmund, and that dreadful younger sister of Holst Goneril, Hilda. I suppose that just leaves our wayward house leader, the mysterious Claude Von Riegan.”

“Well, what are we waiting around here for? Let’s head to the cathedral, I bet he’s already there. Then we can all be united as a House and crush the other houses with our muscles!” Raphael flexed, then glanced at Ignatz and Lysithea. “And...our other skill sets!”

Ignatz sighed. Leonie slapped him on the back, causing him to blush furiously.

In the Cathedral, three flags were set up, one for each of the three houses of Garreg Mach’s officer academy. Decently sized crowds were gathered around each flag. The flag of the Golden Deer was on the western end of the room, the Black Eagle’s on the eastern, and the Blue Lion’s smack in the middle. The group of 5 made their way towards the golden flag, which had a rather conspicuous Claude-shaped hole around it.

“He’s not here either,” Lorenz said with a scoff. “Unbelievable! A house leader should not be late to orientation. Truly disgraceful conduct. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if we have to replace him. With, for example…” He was, of course, about to say ‘myself,’ but noticed the other members of his party giving him odd looks. Blanching a bit, he said, “he’s right behind me, isn’t he,” and then a pair of hands closed around his eyes.

“Guess who~” cooed a voice that Lorenz would be truly shocked if it belonged to Claude Von Riegan.

“...Have you all met Hilda Goneril?” Lorenz asked, his face still caught in her grip.

“Pretty rude of you to try the ol’ chew and screw on Marianne and me,” Hilda teased, removing her hands. Lorenz turned and saw that the Von Edmund girl was nervously trailing behind Hilda. “Luckily we’re all in the same class, so we’re reunited once again! Yay!”

The group began to intermingle. Introductions were shared, Raphael tried a few more bone-crushing handshakes, Leonie and Hilda swapped a few playful shoulder-punches, Marianne and Ignatz mostly tried to avoid taking any collateral damage, and Lysithea...stood off by herself.

She was looking down the full length of the cathedral, towards the banners where the other classes were gathering. Lorenz walked up beside her.

“Sizing up the competition?” he asked.

“Yes, actually,” she responded. “Looks like that woman from earlier, Mercedes, is with the Blue Lions. A shame, I guess, she seemed...nice.”

Lorenz nodded in agreement, though he couldn’t help but recall that Lysithea’s reaction at the time had been to accuse Mercedes of treating her like a child and storming off. He hadn’t recalled her ever behaving like that when they truly were children. She had always been an exceedingly friendly, sweet girl.

“Annie! I’m so glad to see you here!” Mercedes was saying, embracing another girl at the Blue Lions flag, this one about Lysithea’s size with bright red hair.

“Mercie! Yes, this year is gonna be so great!” Annie responded, as they both did an excited jump up and down in each other's arms. Lorenz watched, amused and with just the tiniest amount of jealousy he could never admit to himself. These two appeared to have a sincere friendship that he lacked with any of his own fellow students. Oh, sure, he had been friends with some of them once, but the years since had trained him to be distant, strategic, analytical, cynical. A noble before a friend.

“This is Ashe,” Annie was saying, introducing a young man of the Blue Lions to Mercedes. The two exchanged some pleasantries that Lorenz couldn’t quite hear. “And that grumpypants over there is Felix.” Lorenz followed her indication and laid eyes upon the...well, he had never heard the term ‘grumpypants’ before but one look at the boy named Felix and it was clear you weren’t going to find a more apt descriptor. He scowled at his fellow Blue Lions - and then looked up, his eyes meeting Lorenz’s. They stared at each other for a moment before Felix looked away.

Another rival, perhaps? Lorenz wondered to himself.

“I don’t see those weirdos from the bridge,” Lysithea said. “That girl who screamed and ran off, or that weird noble with his weird...herald...person.”

“They must be in the Black Eagles house, for students from the Adrestian Empire,” Lorenz said. Try as he might, he could not see around the Blue Lions students well enough to make out anyway at the Black Eagles flag. “As my family’s territory is right on the border with the Empire, my father does business with them frequently. I can confirm they are an eccentric bunch.”

Lysithea jerked a thumb over her shoulder at where Raphael was running around in circles with a cheering Hilda on his shoulders. “More eccentric than that?”

“Well...no,” Lorenz admitted with a sigh.

“Ah-he-he-hem.”

It was the kind of voice clearing that could echo across a canyon and silence a marauding horde. It etched the knowledge deep in your soul that quieting down would be the Polite thing to do, and not quieting down would lead to some Impolite retaliation.

All chatter in the hall fell silent.

“Thank you, everybody,” the voice continued. It was sweet and friendly with just a dollop of deeply menacing sitting on top. “Welcome...to Garreg Mach’s Officer Academy.”

“Enough with the dramatics, Manuela,” another voice said. “I’m sure the students would like to dive into their studies without further delay.”

The woman called Manuela sighed. She was a prim, elegantly dressed older woman - not TOO much older, one would hastily add for fear of their own life. Actually, she was very beautiful, regardless of age. She clearly knew it, as well, and had dressed in such a way to show off her curvaceous figure for anyone who dared to look directly at it.

She held a hand pointer in her right hand, and smacked it against her left palm, before clenching her fist around it.

“My esteemed colleague no doubt has a point,” she said. “Let us begin the introductions. I am Manuela Cassagranda. Some of you may recognize me from my time as lead singer of the Mittlefrank Opera Company in Enbarr, though most of you are likely too young to have seen my performances.” She let out a heartfelt sigh at that realization. “These days, I teach here at the academy. I will be training you in melee combat and white magic, and I will also be the general education teacher of the Black Eagle house.” Some of the Black Eagle students clapped politely at that, to which Manuela nodded appreciatively. “I will let my colleagues introduce themselves now as well.”

At this, the man who had interrupted her earlier stepped forward. He was a tall man, elegantly dressed, his hair and mustache a dark gray that betrayed his age. Still, he was a striking figure, inspiring easily as much response from his mere posture and presence as Manuelda had.

“Hanneman Von Essar,” he said, hands folded behind his back as he stood straight and addressed the students. “I am Fodlan’s foremost expert in Crest Research, with a number of publications on the subject for anyone who may be interested. Of more immediate relevance to most of you, however, will be my role in teaching you ranged combat and black magic, as well as serving as the general education provider for the Blue Lions house.” As the Black Eagles had with Manuela, the Blue Lions now politely clapped for Hanneman, who bowed before them. “I look forward to working alongside you all this year as you develop your young minds into the knowledge-hungry adults you will no doubt become.”

Well then, thought Lorenz. If those were the heads of the Black Eagles and Blue Lions houses, that must mean the head of the Golden Deer was next! What noble and esteemed individual would they be mentoring under?

A woman stepped forward. Lorenz stared at her in confusion. She looked...young. Almost as young as himself. She also looked rather uncomfortable standing there, all eyes in the cathedral on her.

“Uh...hey,” she said. “I’m Byleth Esiner. I guess I’ll, uh, be teaching about combat and...battle tactics, and...stuff.” She then stood there, staring awkwardly ahead, until Manuela gave her a polite but sharp elbow to the ribs. “Oh!” she added, jolted out of her reverie. “And I guess I’m teaching the Golden Deer. So...hi.”

None of the Golden Deer applauded, and silence reigned over the cathedral.

It was finally broken by Hilda cheering, “woohoo! Yeah! Let’s go Golden--” followed by “ohshitOHSHIT!” as she tumbled backwards off of Raphael’s shoulders and hit the floor.

Byleth smiled politely towards them, but it was clear her heart wasn’t in it, then she stepped back, further away than where Manuela and Hanneman were standing.

“Well now,” Manuela said, trying to quickly smooth over that unexpectedly awkward interlude. “Classes will begin in earnest next week, after a special start-of-year ceremony with the Archbishop here in the cathedral. Until then, you are all expected to familiarize yourselves with the campus, with our many amenities that we expect you to take full advantage of, and with each other. After all, you are all the bright and shining future of Fodlan!” She gave a saccharine grin that was pretty convincing, but Lorenz could tell this woman still had some impressive acting chops.

“‘Scuse me, coming through!” rang out a voice from the bridge, followed by the sound of rapid footsteps. All heads turned towards the south, looking for the source.

Another student, with messy red hair and his uniform barely on straight, was sprinting towards them as fast as he could. He nearly collided with the entire Blue Lions class as he came skidding to a halt by their flag.

Grumpypants - no, wait, what was his name? Ah, yes, Felix. Felix grabbed him by the arm, looking more cross than anyone. “Sylvain, you idiot, you’re late!”

“Mr...Gautier, isn’t it?” Manuela asked, stepping forward.

“Ah...sorry, professor,” Sylvain said, fixing her with a sly grin and a wink. Lorenz heard Lysithea facepalm next to him. “I overslept. Can I make it up to you?”

“Yes,” Manuela responded, running her right hand up and down the shaft of her hand pointer. “I suspect you can.”

She brought the hand pointer down in a swift arc, clobbering Sylvain over the head with it. He went sprawling to the floor.

The reaction from the crowd was about half gasps, half laughter. Felix offered a hand to help Sylvain back up, though Lorenz could hear him mutter, “dumbass” as he did so.

“You are the future of Fodlan,” Manuela called out, her voice no longer dripping with sweetness but rather reinforced with a cold commanding force. “We expect you all to act like it! During your time here, you will train, and you will fight! When the Battle of the Eagle and Lion comes around, only one class can be victorious! And years from now, when it comes time to close a crucial trade deal for your lands, or call on friends for protection from roaming marauders, do you want everyone standing around you here today to remember you as the reason they lost? Because you slacked off and did not take your training or studying seriously? I daresay nobody here wants that. So stay on your toes. Always. Dismissed!”

After that, the Golden Deer split up to go explore the monastery alone or in smaller groups. Well, the Golden Deer minus Claude Von Riegan, that was. While Sylvain Gautier had gotten quite the whooping for arriving at orientation late, Lorenz wondered - with some grim enjoyment, truth be told - what punishment would be meted out upon Von Riegan for missing the thing entirely. Perhaps he truly would be stripped of his house leader status.

And if Lorenz could snatch house leader from him, perhaps it wouldn't be too far-fetched for him to snatch the title of Duke of the Leicester Alliance someday, too…

As he wandered through the monastery, inspecting the training grounds, the armory, the library, the stables...those he spoke to had not seen hide nor head of Claude. Each time Lorenz met someone knew and determined they were as baffled by the missing house leader as he was, he made sure to turn up the charm and schmooze his way into a proper noble introduction. If Claude wasn’t going to be around to build connections for the Alliance, someone had to, right?

Finally, after a full day of talking to anyone who would spare the time for him, the sun was beginning to set over the tops of the tall buildings surrounding them, bathing the monastery grounds in the dazzling orange light of evening. Lorenz could hear a cacophony of voices emanating from the mess hall. No doubt the rest of his peers were roughhousing and bonding in the crass ways of commoners. Lorenz enjoyed socialization, but he felt it was better to stick to one-on-one conversations that he could control, where he could gently guide the other party to outcomes more desirable to him. Especially if the future of the Alliance was going to fall to him now that Claude Von Riegan was out of the picture.

Yes, he felt very confident about that.

The next morning, after making himself perfectly presentable once again, Lorenz made his way to the mess hall for breakfast. As people woke up at different times, the hall was much less crowded in the morning then it tended to be around dinner time.

After grabbing his food, he noticed Lysithea sitting by herself, picking at a bowl of oatmeal without much enthusiasm.

“You know, you’ll have to eat more than that if you want to grow as big and strong as Raphael,” he teased, taking a seat across from her.

Lysithea stuck her tongue out at him. “I tried pouring all the sugar I could into here, but one of the cooks got mad at me for using too much. And it’s still hardly even sweet.” She pushed the bowl away towards Lorenz. “You can have the rest. I’m not that hungry anyway.”

Lorenz shrugged, helped himself to a spoonful of the oatmeal, and nearly gagged at how cloyingly sweet it was.

“Hey, I’ve got a thing this afternoon,” Lysithea said. “Do you, uhm...want to come?”

“I’m sorry? A thing?” Lorenz asked, crunching granules of raw sugar between his teeth. He knocked back some water to try and cleanse his pallet.

“Professor Byleth heard about my knocking out all those jerk-offs yesterday with one spell,” Lysithea explained. “When she came to talk to me about it, I assumed I was in trouble, but she just seemed weirdly excited. Said she had a challenge for me and that I should meet her in the training grounds. I don’t know what it is, but, well, I guess some emotional support couldn’t hurt, right?”

Lorenz smiled at her. “Well, then I shall be happy to accompany you. I wonder what our Professor has in store for you? An ancient tome for you to unlock, perhaps? Or a special certification exam to gauge the full depth of your theoretical knowledge?”

“I want you to fight this dude,” Byleth said, pointing at an older gentleman.

He waved politely at Lysithea and Lorenz. “Hello.”

“What,” Lysithea asked, looking between him and the professor. “Just...fight him?”

“My friend here is a member of the Talons of Macuil,” Byleth explained. “An organization of powerful magic wielders. We’ve fought together a few times during my mercenary days. He knows his way around black magic.” Byleth began to laugh, which was a rather unsettling sight. “Remember that one time, you set fire to an entire…” she paused, and seemed to remember she was in front of students. “Uhm, well, nevermind.”

“Do not worry, Lysithea,” the Talon said, bowing before her. “I will go easy on you. I do not wish to hurt a child, but Byleth simply wishes to see a demonstration of your abilities.”

Lorenz winced. Oh boy.

Lysithea clenched her fist, and glared at her opponent. Lorenz could physically feel the waves of power radiating outwards from her. Her long white hair began to flutter of its own accord.

“Do NOT go easy on me,” she snapped. “I am NOT a child!”

They both cast a spell at the same time. Black magic flew out from each of them, and crashed together in the center of their makeshift arena.

Lysithea’s spell overwhelmed her opponent’s. The other spell disintegrated before it, and on it went, slamming into the Talon of Macuil and knocking him backwards, where he slammed into a pillar so hard the granite chipped before he slid to the ground.

It all happened so fast Lorenz hadn’t even been able to comprehend it until it was over.

“Oh, Goddess!” Lysithea finally said, slapping a hand over her mouth and stepping forward. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to...is he…”

Then the arena erupted in boisterous, good natured laughter.

The Talon slowly hobbled back to his feet, dusting himself off. “Damn impressive power, my girl!” He walked over to Byleth and clapped her on the shoulder. “You’ve got something special here with that one, B. She’ll either be saving the world or destroying it before the year is out. Hah!”

“Yeah,” Byleth responded. She was staring at Lysithea.

Lorenz felt something deeply troubling within that stare.

“Oh, hey,” Byleth suddenly said, snapping out of the reverie, and it was like another kind of spell was broken, as if the last minute had never happened. “You guys have got another student joining your class, did you know that?”

“Claude Von Riegan?” Lorenz asked. “Yes, I supposed he would show up sooner or--”

“No, no, not him, someone else,” Byleth said, shaking her head. “She’ll be joining the class late, but just be nice to her when she gets here, yeah? Thanks, kid.”

Lorenz blinked a few times. Lysithea was so powerful that their Professor had arranged for an old friend to come challenge her magical abilities. Meanwhile he himself was...what, the door greeter? Someone to be called ‘kid’ as if his name wasn’t even worth remembering?

“Come on,” Lysithea said, tugging at his sleeve. Byleth and her old friend had begun chatting with each other in a low voice so the students couldn’t over hear. Giving up, Lorenz allowed himself to be pulled away by Lysithea.

“Well, congratulations,” Lorenz said. “You truly are impressive.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Lysithea said with a sigh. Lorenz gave her an odd look.

“I would think you should be elated,” he said. “You are clearly one of the most powerful students here. I’m not just saying that.”

“I know,” Lysithea responded, still sounding dejected. “This year is supposed to be about challenging ourselves and growing. If I was able to beat that guy so quickly...with basically no training...all because of…”

“All because of what?” Lorenz asked.

“Forget it,” Lysithea said. “I gotta go.”

She ran off. Lorenz watched her, dumbfounded.

An inner voice shouted at him: follow her, you idiot! Something isn’t right here. She needs--

But then another inner voice chimed up. Not so much a devil to counteract an angel, just one boring, normal version of him bickering with another. She needs what? YOU? What use could you possibly be to her? With power like that...she has no use for someone like you.

“Damnit,” Lorenz muttered to himself.

“--The Von Riegan Kid.”

The words floated past him, cutting through his chaotic inner dialogue. It shook him right out of his funk, making him forget Lysithea, her abilities, and his own confused feelings.

“Yeah, I took him to see the Archbishop,” one Knight was saying to another as they walked past Lorenz on a routine patrol of the monastery grounds. “I mean, it was the weirdest thing. The whole group of troublemakers was wiped out, while the kid hardly had a scratch on him. And he was just sitting there, eating a sandwich like nothing had happened.”

“This place has some real weirdos this year, huh?”

“Tell me about it.”

Lorenz watched them walk past, until they were too far away to hear anymore.

So, Claude Von Riegan had decided to finally show up.

After...fighting an entire group of troublemakers himself, and getting out unscathed?

While eating a sandwich?

Lorenz sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Just who the hell WAS this guy?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lorenz and Hilda come to an agreement. Claude Von Riegan arrives. Seteth explains a change to the curriculum.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I accidentally started writing Claude/Lorenz fanfiction instead. Don't worry, we'll get back to Lysithea soon!

Lorenz wandered the grounds of Garreg Mach, lost in a sea of conspiratorial thinking.

Claude Von Riegan was, by all accounts, just...some guy. Nobody had known he existed even a year ago, and then suddenly he had popped up out of the woodwork to suddenly cut ahead in line and become the official heir to the Leicester Alliance.

Who DOES that?

But even if the paper trail all checked out and he was, sincerely, the blooded heir of Duke Oswald Von Riegan, he was still just a normal noble kid. A crest could enhance his physical capabilities, sure, but enough to take down a group of people without a sweat? No, it just didn’t add up.

There was trickery afoot, and Lorenz hated trickery.

Perhaps if he could somehow prove the truth, that Claude had used some sort of trick to make people think he was more impressive than he was...perhaps even more ROYAL than he really was...well, his efforts in that regard would certainly help propel him up the list of replacements for head of the Alliance, now wouldn’t it?

But first he’d actually have to find this Claude, and figure out--

“Oh Lorenzy-poo!”

He froze in his tracks. His blood ran cold.

Maybe if I don’t move, she won’t be able to see me.

“I can see you, silly!” chuckled Hilda Goneril as she strode across the open grounds towards him.

Lorenz’s feet had mostly been on auto-pilot while he had been brooding about Claude. Without realizing it, he had ended up somewhere on the northwestern end of the monastery, on a minaret far from any dorms or classrooms. As such, there was nobody around. Nobody except for himself and Hilda.

“Hilda, why are you--” he began, his tone accusatory, but Hilda cut him off by pushing him against a stone wall, placing her right arm by his head so he could not easily retreat. Through the dull haze of terror, he felt he had to respect it; for a girl who tried so hard to give off an aura of pristine daintiness, she sure had disarmed and boxed him in with ruthless efficiency.

“So, here’s the thing, Lorenz,” she said, looking up at him with big watery eyes and a perfectly rehearsed pout to her lip. She began to trace her left index finger around on his chest. “Classes start next week. And I’ve never been very good at classes. Especially not FIGHTING classes. It’s so much work, and I get all sweaty and gross, and then I’m sore afterwards...but if I had a big strong man to stay by my side and help me out with all my assignments, I’d be feeling...very grateful…”

“Hilda…”

“I might even agree to help you with some...spear work. If you know what I mean.”

“Hilda.”

“Your peni--”

“Okay, Hilda, listen.” Lorenz gently placed his palm on her forehead and pushed her away from him. He needed some breathing room. Her scent was intoxicating, and the last thing he wanted was to give that tiny, barbaric voice in the back of his head yelling “do it!” any more ammunition. “If you need help with your training, I will help you. Okay? You can just ask me for assistance, and I will do what I can. But I will not neglect my own training for your sake. And you really should not do this whole…” he waved his hand vaguely, unable to conjure an appropriate word, “thing that you’re doing.”

Hilda blinked at him a few times, clearly surprised by this turn of events. “You mean you’ll just...help me? And I don’t have to put out?”

Lorenz wasn’t quite familiar with the terminology, but he nodded. “In fact, I would actually prefer it if you were to stop, ah, putting out, as you put it. At least maybe not so aggressively.”

Hilda put a finger to her lips, lost in thought for a moment.

“Huh,” she finally said.

Lorenz took the opportunity to slide away from her a bit. If it appeared like she was going to change her mind and resume hounding him, he was not above turning tail and running away. For now he kept his back to the wall, sidling along slowly and discreetly.

Until he fell through an open alcove and landed on his back in a dark room. Dust bloomed up all around him, causing him to cough and wheeze as he flailed his arms around in panic.

“Whoa! Lorenz! Are you okay!?” Hilda asked, darting into the room after him. “Hey, where the heck are we, anyway?”

Lorenz blurted out something that was half shout, half cough, all gibberish. Hilda stepped towards him. He held up an arm, assuming she was coming to help him get back on his feet, but she stepped over him to continue inspecting the room.

“I think this is...an old unused dorm room!” she said, excitement creeping into her voice.

Lorenz pushed himself to his feet, trying in vain to wipe some of the dust off of his nice uniform, then spun around to see what Hilda was talking about.

Indeed, it was about 50% larger than the student dorms currently in use at Garreg Mach, and it lacked a bed, but a few pieces of dusty old furniture were still scattered about, including some tea tables, a bench, a writing table, and a bookshelf.

“This is cozy!” Hilda said, clapping her hands with glee. Then, without warning, she spun around and grabbed Lorenz by the shoulders. “We should make this our hideout!”

“I...wait, why do we need a hideout?” Lorenz asked, eyeing her suspiciously. Hilda laughed at him.

“No, not for anything naughty, I’m over that,” she said. “I mean for our class! Imagine if the Golden Deer have somewhere secret and out of the way to meet up outside of class! I bet the other classes wouldn’t think of something like that. And it would give us a place to study together, train together, and just hang out and grow closer to each other. Isn’t that what the Professors were talking about earlier? Isn’t forging our bonds the key to victory, or whatever?”

Lorenz stared at her for a moment, then slowly lifted his gaze up. He looked around the room again. It was a mess, and a bit barren, but...perhaps it did have potential. And perhaps Hilda’s crazy plan was not so crazy after all.

“Okay,” he finally said. “Yes, I think you’re onto something here, Hilda. I’ll let Raphael and Ignatz know about this place, and you can inform Leonie and Marianne. As for Lysithea--”

His train of thought came to a screeching halt. He suddenly remembered Lysithea running away from him earlier, clearly upset, but Lorenz had been too obsessed with Claude to follow after her. What was wrong with him?

“Well, one of us will see her, I’m sure,” he said.

Hilda was spinning around giddily, already planning how to renovate the space and turn it into the most fashionable hangout it could be. Lorenz smiled and stepped back out into the daylight. As strange as she could be, there was something admittedly rather endearing about the girl…

He began to wind his way back towards the dorms. Perhaps Lysithea was there. He had spent too much time thinking about Claude, and owed it to her to sit down and talk about what was bothering her. They went way back. They were both nobles. Lorenz could let her know that he truly understood, as an equal, whatever problems were bothering her.

Yes, enough about Claude! Who cares about him? It’s time to move on!

He opened the door to his dorm, intending to stop in only for a moment to check his appearance in the mirror.

“Claude?” he said.

Claude Von Riegan was lying on top of his bed. He was on his right side, facing the door, with his head propped up on his right knuckle, and his right knee bent upwards while his left leg pointed straight ahead. He grinned mischievously as Lorenz entered.

“You must be Lorenz Hellman Gloucester,” Claude said, standing up. He strode over towards Lorenz, and winked at him.

“...Claude Von Riegan,” Lorenz said with a nod. The two slowly began to spin around each other, like some sort of dance. “Mind if I ask why you’re in my room? Is there a sign on the door encouraging people to break in and make themselves at home?”

“There could be, I didn’t really check,” Claude responded with a shrug. He grinned. Lorenz grimaced. Oh how he loathed this man already.

“You know, we were worried about you,” Lorenz went on. “Thought maybe you decided to skip town. If the thought of adhering to a strict academic calendar is too stressful for you, I’d be happy to help take up the mantle of House Leader.”

“Hey, thanks, buddy!” Claude said, clasping him jovially on the shoulder. “I really appreciate it. It’s good to know that if things get tough, I can count on Lorenz to have my back.”

His smile was so warm, so disarming, that Lorenz momentarily could not tell if Claude was an idiot, or fucking with him. When he realized it was the latter, he scowled.

“I am not here to help you,” he snapped. “I am here to help the Alliance. And should I determine that the best course of action for the Alliance is to replace you as heir, then I will not hesitate to do so.”

“Keeping me on my toes, too! You’re an all around great guy, Lorenz.” Claude winked at him. Lorenz wanted to punch him in the face, but knew noblemen did not settle their differences that way.

“Just tell me this,” Lorenz said. “Is the story I’m hearing true? Did you really dispatch an entire band of ruffians in town on your own?”

Claude laughed. It was a warm, genuine, infectious laugh, and that just made Lorenz all the madder. “Yeah, I guess I did, huh? Boy, word travels fast.”

“Where did you learn such martial skills?” Lorenz asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

Claude tapped his chin, apparently confused by the question. “Martial skill..?” Then he laughed again. “Oh! Nah, they were being obnoxious, so I ordered them all a round of drinks on me. Before it got to them, though, I added a little of Claude’s Special Hot Sauce.” He winked. “A mild poison to induce stomach cramps. Nothing lethal, just enough to make them too focused on not soiling themselves to be able to fight back very well.”

“But...but that’s cheating!” Lorenz responded, aghast.

“Sorry, what? The goal was to get them to stop hassling the locals. I succeeded. I don’t recall agreeing to a set of rules beforehand.”

“But that’s not...it’s not noble!” Lorenz continued to protest.

Claude smiled, and gently patted Lorenz on the cheek. “I’m not gonna say you’re wrong, buddy. Just that I don’t really care.” With that, he turned to leave. “Anyway, I’ll see you at the big church assembly tomorrow, right? I’ve gotta get going, I’ve got a date tonight. It’s gonna be a fun year!” He winked again, and then slammed the door to Lorenz’s room behind him.

Lorenz stood there, staring at the closed door, confused and irritated.

Then some of Claude’s final words finally sunk in.

“He’s already got a date!?” Lorenz groaned to himself.

In another dorm room elsewhere on the monastery grounds, Mercedes was viciously attacking someone.

“Ow!” her victim yelped.

“Oops! Sorry,” Mercedes responded with a bright smile.

“I really don’t think this is all necessary,” Ingrid said. Another member of the Blue Lion class, she was sitting in a chair facing the mirror in Mercedes’ room while her classmate rather aggressively applied makeup, styled her hair, and attempted to straighten her eyelashes.

“Ingrid Galatea, you have nabbed quite possibly the first romantic evening at Garreg Mach this year,” Mercedes chided. “I simply must insist that you look your best to represent the Blue Lions class!” Mercedes then giggled whimsically. “Also, I just think this is so much fun. You have such beautiful features, Ingrid, you really should accentuate them.”

“I don’t understand how jabbing me in the eyes with your weird utensils helps with that,” Ingrid said with a sigh. “And anyway, you’re overreacting. I asked Claude if he would like to discuss his recent fight in town everyone is talking about over dinner in the mess hall. It’s not like we’re having a private candlelit affair.”

“Oh, but imagine how nice that would be!” Mercedes cooed. “Just you and him, across a table for two, the room dark except for the flickering candlelight between you, each lost in the eyes of the other...it sounds…”

“Like a fire hazard,” Ingrid interjected.

“Like romance!” Mercedes finished, undeterred. “Oh, I wonder if I’ll be so lucky as to find what you’ve found before the year is up.”

“Mercedes. We exchanged two sentences with each other. And they weren’t wedding vows. Please calm down.”

The next morning, Lorenz rolled out of bed in a foul mood. So far this year had not been the parade of social victories he had been anticipating. His pep talk to himself a few nights ago now felt like a lifetime ago. He was being beaten, in romance, battle capability, and social mobility, by someone who hadn’t even shown up to campus on time!

Still, today was the final day before classes began, with the Archbishop performing some sort of special ceremony to anoint the beginning of a new academic year. It wasn’t too late to turn things around. No, not too late at all. The past few days had been a...a trial run! Yes, that was it. They hardly counted at all.

After about 20 minutes painstakingly fixing his hair and uniform, he stepped outside, closed his eyes, breathed in the fresh spring air, and was immediately tackled to the ground.

“Augh! Why!” he cried out.

“Gah! Sorry, Lorenz! Didn’t see you step out of your room!” It was Leonie who had bowled him over. She was already back on her feet and holding out a hand to help him up. She was glistening with sweat from head to toe.

Lorenz accepted the help up, then tried to discreetly wipe the sweat off his hand with a handkerchief. Leonie did not seem to notice or mind.

“Just getting in a light afternoon jog!” she said, taking the momentary pause to do some stretches.

“Afternoon? It’s not even nine in the morning,” Lorenz objected.

“Oh! I’ve been at this for a few hours, so I guess I didn’t actually know what time it was.”

Lorenz watched her, curious.

“Were you...heading to the cathedral for the ceremony, by any chance?” he asked.

“Yeah, eventually,” Leonie said. She was now jogging in place while watching him.

“I don’t suppose you’d mind if I joined you?” Lorenz asked. “Normally I would not wish to impose, but...I think a short jog could be just what I need to stir me out of this funk I’ve found myself in.”

“Oh! Hell yeah, Lorenz! Let’s do it!” Leonie pumped her fist in the air excitedly. “Always happy to have a training buddy. A short jog, yeah? Don’t wanna push you too hard. So we’ll just do two more full laps around the monastery before heading to the cathedral. Come on!”

“Wait, what--” Lorenz began, but Leonie was already darting off. “Wait! I...damn it…” He grumbled and followed after her.

Ingrid nearly had a similar violent collision upon exiting her room that morning. Mercedes was waiting excitedly just outside her door, the older girl beaming at her.

“Details, Ingrid! I want...no, I need details!” She began to crane her neck around Ingrid, clearly attempting to see if anyone was in the room behind her.

“Oh my Goddess,” Ingrid replied, mortified. “He’s not in there. Nobody’s in there. Can we go get breakfast?”

Mercedes held out her arms, blocking Ingrid’s path. “Only if you promise to give me all the juicy details.”

“Luckily for you, starving to death is the one thing I hate more than talking about my personal life, so sure, let’s go.” Ingrid gently but firmly pushed Mercedes aside and walked past her. Mercedes giggled and followed.

“So, what’s he like? This Claude Von Riegan we’ve all heard so much about?” Mercedes asked.

Ingrid was quiet for a moment.

“Ooh, all flustered? You must really like him!” Mercedes teased.

“No, that’s...not quite it,” Ingrid responded. Mercedes calmed down a bit, sensing the awkwardness in her words.

“Huh? Then what is it?”

“He was just...kind of weird, I guess,” Ingrid said with a shrug. “He mostly just ate a lot of food and dodged the subject whenever I tried to ask him about himself. It was almost kind of sketchy.”

“Huh!” Mercedes said. “A man of mystery. Some women like that, you know.”

Ingrid nudged her friend playfully. “Well then you can have the next date with him, okay? But yeah, I don’t know. He was nice enough, he didn’t say anything outwardly rude or hostile, but...I just couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t really care about what was going on. Wherever his mind was, it wasn’t in the mess hall with us.”

Due to Lorenz slowing them down, he and Leonie were two of the last students to make it to the cathedral before the big start-of-year ceremony began. He saw Raphael, a figure who was hard to miss in any crowd, excitedly waving them over to where he and the rest of the Golden Deer were seated.

“Hey, gang,” Leonie said, giving friendly hi-fives and shoulder bumps to her classmates.

“Hnnghh...hyyyeeeehhh...hrrrrggghhh…” Lorenz said, clutching his chest and slumping into an open seat.

A few seats down, Claude leaned forward, giving a little wave of his own. “Hey, Lorenz! Glad you showed up. Would be weird if my honorary understudy house leader went MIA, right?”

Lorenz gave him a wheeze that had some similarities to a ‘piss off.’

Looking down the line, he also saw Lysithea sitting on the other side of Claude. She smiled and nodded at him.

See? That little voice in his head chirped up again. She’s fine. She doesn’t need you worrying about her.

Keep your eyes on Claude, for now…

“Good morning, students.”

The voice was deep, commanding, and brooked no tomfoolery. Lorenz turned to face the speaker, who was at the front of the chapel, standing straight with his hands clasped behind his back. His dark green hair fell past his ears, and he had a neatly cropped beard to match.

He was scowling at the students. Lorenz suppressed a shudder. If this man had ever heard of the concept of a smile, he had dismissed it as entirely frivolous.

“My name is Seteth,” he announced. “I am the right hand of the Archbishop, Lady Rhea. As the Archbishop is very busy communing with the Goddess on behalf of all the people of Fodlan, I handle the day-to-day administrative tasks. Should you have any concerns that require our attention, you will leave Lady Rhea alone and come to me first. I trust this is well understood.”

Lorenz glanced over at Claude again, who was predictably grinning. He had allegedly already earned an audience with Lady Rhea after his stunt in town. Lorenz briefly wondered if he should bring Claude’s use of poison to her attention…

“Furthermore, once classes start tomorrow, you will all be on your best behaviour. You are not just representing yourselves, but your families, your homelands, Garreg Mach, Fodlan, and the Goddess herself. You are the best and brightest, the next generation of leaders. We are here to help foster the greatness within you, but we can only help you so much. The onus is on each and every one of you.”

Lorenz nodded along dully, his breath finally starting to return to normal. This was all sounding like the speech the professors had given them the day before yesterday.

“That said,” Seteth went on, “we understand that with so many...young folks...closely confined together for such a long period of time, conflicts will inevitably arise. That is why, starting this year, we are proposing a new system of conflict resolution. A duel system.”

At this, an excited murmur started to work its way through the crowd of students.

“Should any two students encounter a problem with each other that cannot be solved diplomatically, a formal challenge can be issued. If accepted, the two students will compete in a mutually agreed upon matter, with rules agreed upon beforehand, until one is proven the victor. These contests can be physical or mental in nature.”

Lorenz was now sitting up straight, as was everyone else in the cathedral. Those with parents or older siblings who had attended the officer’s academy had never heard of something like THIS before.

“Those who are defeated are expected to behave in a sportsmanlike manner, graciously accept defeat, and train to better themselves if they wish to be victorious in a future rematch. Only through competition with each other will you grow in both strength and wisdom. Only by constantly pushing each other can you truly push yourselves.”

Lorenz glanced over at Claude again. Claude was looking straight ahead.

“One last thing. A few students who were slated to join the academy this year are not...quite prepared to do so. As such, more students may trickle in over the next few weeks. It is my...understanding that one such student will be joining the Golden Deer class under the care of Professor Byleth. To the students of the Golden Deer, and to the students of all the classes, I fully anticipate that you will treat any new students with the utmost respect.”

Lorenz recalled that Byleth had mentioned something to him and Lysithea yesterday about a new student joining their class. Though while Byleth had sounded nonchalant about it, Seteth was being...oddly intense. Well, it was probably just a difference in the personalities between the two of them.

Seteth introduced the Archbishop, Lady Rhea. She said only a few words, once more welcoming all the students to the academy and praising them as the future of Fodlan. Then she began to sing. Her voice was beautiful, and the song, in an ancient tongue Lorenz did not understand, brought several students to tears.

Not him, though. He felt a mischievous grin spreading across his face ever since Seteth had explained the duel system.

Claude Von Riegan, you are going down.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude proposes a wager. Lysithea recalls times long past. The new classmate is introduced.

The first day of classes was...surprisingly uneventful.

It was quickly made apparent that Byleth was as new to being a Professor here as they all were to being students. At several points throughout the day, everything had to collectively grind to a halt as the ex-mercenary searched through her notes, tried to find a referenced section in a textbook, or simply found she lacked the vocabulary to properly explain the best ways to, “you know, stab ‘em.”

Still, everyone seemed to like her. She was naturally easygoing, her youth made her more relatable and less intimidating than the other professors, and it was fascinating to have someone with so much practical combat experience teaching them.

Lorenz, of course, had his hands full. Between fulfilling his promise to help Hilda study, occasionally jabbing Leonie to wake her up (her early morning jogs were coming back to bite her), and planning how best to crush Claude in humiliating defeat, the day seemed to simply fly by.

When the bells chimed to signify the end of classes, Byleth perked up and made a run for the door. “I’m starving,” she said. “See you in the mess hall!”

“Hell yeah, Professor’s got the right idea,” Raphael said, standing up and preparing to follow her.

“Hey wait,” Claude called out, causing Raphael to skid to a sudden halt.

Everyone turned to look at Claude, who had wandered over to the front of the classroom where Byleth had been teaching from. Lorenz furrowed his brow, irrationally annoyed to see Claude acting so casually like the Professor himself.

“Seteth said we’ve got another new student joining us at the end of the week,” Claude said. “We should talk about this, right? Who do we think it’s going to be?”

Lorenz leaned back in his seat, fixing Claude with a smug grin. “Well, Claude, if you had anything nearing the acceptable amount of familiarity with the makeup of the Leicester Alliance, you would no doubt be able to narrow down the possibilities based on which noble families have appropriately aged children.”

“Hey, who said it has to be a noble?” Leonie asked. “Last I checked, 3 of us were commoners.”

“Yeah!” Raphael said. “Leonie, Ignatz, and...wait, who’s the third?”

“You, Raphael.”

“Oh, right.” His stomach growled loudly. “I forget things when I’m hungry.”

“Let’s also not forget the possibility that our soon-to-be-classmate isn’t even from the Leicester Alliance,” Claude went on. “Although students are *recommended* into classes based on their place of birth, the placings aren’t mandatory or permanent. It could be someone from Faerghus who hates the color blue, for instance.”

“Huh. Like a knight?” Ignatz asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Ooh, or maybe it’s a hot, rich noble from the Empire,” Hilda said. “We’ll fall in love, he’ll shower me in affection and gifts, and then, what’s this? He’s next in line to the throne after Edelgard? And oh no, she had a tragic accident while mountain climbing, making me a Princess?”

Lorenz smacked her in the head, and she giggled.

“See? This is interesting, right?” Claude asked. He meandered over to the chalkboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and began to flip it around his hand like a magician with a coin. “Why don’t we make this even more interesting?”

Lorenz sighed and narrowed his eyes. “What are you even talking about?”

Claude turned to the chalkboard, and began scribbling something on it. When he turned back around, the others could see he had written all of their names.

“We’ll each guess who the new classmate is, and pony up some cash. Whoever is closest, gets to keep the pot. Sounds fun, right?”

“Ooh, gambling!” Hilda said, clearly enticed by the idea.

“I...I don’t think we’re supposed to gamble,” Marianne muttered, so softly Lorenz wasn’t sure anyone else could hear her. If they did, they ignored her.

“I’ll go first,” Claude said. “I bet that the new student is a girl. A young girl. And I bet she’s not from any of the three main territories. I bet she’s from the neutral area around Garreg Mach.” He wrote this all down next to his name, and turned to face the others. He fished out some coins from his pockets and dropped them on the desk. “See how it works? Now, you all guess.”

“Claude,” Lorenz snapped, “None of us are stupid enough to play your ridiculous--”

He was interrupted by the sound of Hilda slapping a coin purse onto Byleth’s desk.

“It’s a man,” she said. “Forget the Empire, he’s from Faerghus. Big and strong and hairy guy from up north. Broods a lot, but beneath his harsh exterior is a true romantic longing to find a woman who can tame that wild heart.”

“Very specific,” Claude said, jotting down a more bare-bones version of that next to Hilda’s name on the chalkboard. “But your fanfiction is accepted. Who’s next?”

“Okay,” Lorenz said, “Hilda may be easily distracted by shiny objects, but no one ELSE is stupid enough to--”

“Oh, I bet I know,” Raphael said. “I bet it’s a girl, from one of those far-away exotic countries. Like Dagda or somewhere. And I bet she has some crazy fighting style totally unlike anything we’ve got here in Fodlan!”

Claude wrote these ideas down next to Raphael’s name. “Alright, alright! Now we’re getting somewhere!”

“I’ll bet,” Lysithea said, tossing some coins onto the pile that Hilda and Raphael had started. Lorenz stared at her. Et tu, Lysithea? “I bet it’s a girl, but an older one. Older than all of you. So you all know what it’s like to feel like a kid next to your classmates.”

“Aw, that’s adorable,” Claude said with a laugh as he wrote this down. Lysithea glared at him.

Leonie bet it would be a boy with legendary athletic skills, and Ignatz guessed it would be a girl from Faerghus training to be a knight. In the end, only Marianne and Lorenz didn’t bet. Marianne, in fact, had slunk off at some point, but Lorenz stayed until the end, crossing his arms and watching everyone else with a glare of obvious disapproval.

“I know who the new student is,” came a voice from the door behind them. The voice was smug, sultry, and trying very hard to be mysterious. Lorenz turned, and saw the student who had been beaten by Professor Manuela on the first day, the precocious redhead named Sylvain.

“What, you do?” Claude said.

“Yep. When I heard there was a new student I asked around. Was hoping it might be a cute girl, right?” Sylvain looked to the others for confirmation that this was the obvious thing to hope for, but nobody took the bait. “Well, anyway, our Professor over at the Blue Lions classroom, Hanneman, told me it’s a boy. So, that sucks, but what can you do?”

“Hey, no fair,” Raphael said. “If we know it’s a boy, we should all be allowed to change that part of our guesses, right?”

“Yeah,” Lysithea agreed. “There was enough other variety there to still make it a fun bet. But I guess we have a fifth boy joining us.”

“Well, fine. I’ll change all of you quitters to say you’re betting it’s a boy.” Claude did just that, altering the answers on the chalkboard. “But I like to live dangerously. I’ll be the lone rebel guessing it’s a girl.”

“Please be hot,” Hilda was saying, crossing her fingers and staring up at the ceiling. “Please, Goddess, let him be hot. Oh, and rich! Can’t forget rich.”

“I’ll hold onto the betting pool until the new student gets here,” Claude said, sliding all the funds off the desk and into an empty purse. “May the best guesser win!”

“Alright,” Raphael said, “this was fun, but I can’t wait another second. Let’s go eat!”

He left at that point, Ignatz and Leonie following along, joking and chatting together. Hilda followed as well, still keeping her fingers crossed and looking upwards in her perversion of prayer.

Lorenz watched them go, then noticed Lysithea getting ready to leave as well. He hurried over to her before she had a chance to escape.

“Hello, Lysithea,” he said, politely, if a bit stiff.

She looked up and offered a weak smile. “Hey, Lorenz. Heading to the mess hall?”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Lorenz said with a nod. “Perhaps you would care to join me? I feel like when last we spoke, things ended a bit awkwardly, and--”

Suddenly a great deal of pressure was around his shoulders. Claude’s head was now hanging in between Lorenz and Lysithea, an arm wrapped around each of their shoulders.

“Hey, gang!” he said. “I was thinking. Why don’t we all head into town for dinner tonight? They’ve got better food than the mess hall, and we can all get to know each other a bit better.”

Lysithea politely grabbed his hand and removed it from her shoulders. “The food in town is good, yes, but the food in the mess hall is free.”

“Yes, too bad, Claude,” Lorenz said, removing Claude’s other arm from his shoulder with much less delicacy. “Maybe next time.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about the price. It’s on me. My treat.”

“Huh,” Lysithea said, and Lorenz was horrified to see she was considering it.

“Wait--” he began.

“We can get dessert,” Claude interjected.

“Alright, I’m in,” Lysithea said with a playful grin. “Are you coming, Lorenz?”

Lorenz looked rapidly back and forth between the two of them, then let out a defeated sigh.

“...Sure.”

“Great!” In that instance Claude had his arms around both of them again and they were off like some deranged three-headed monster. “I know a great place…”

“Ooh, Mr. Claude, welcome back!”

“Hey everyone, look, it’s Claude!”

“There he is! Great to see you again, my boy!”

They entered the establishment to a seemingly endless parade of accolades for Claude. Lorenz figured he really ought to have seen this coming: of course Claude was going to take them to the place where he had beaten up those ruffians. He was a hero here. They were probably going to eat for free.

The only meal Lorenz wanted to share with Claude was a sandwich. A knuckle sandwich. Right in the...mouth.

He resolved to work on his banter before their inevitable showdown.

When Claude was done shaking hands and exchanging friendly comments with the staff, they were finally seated at a very nice table near the window looking out at the monastery above them.  
“So, order whatever you want. Like I said, it’s on me.” Claude fished out a coin purse and shook it tantalizingly before putting it back.

Lorenz stared at him. Some gears in his head were beginning to grind into motion…

“That’s the betting money!” he suddenly shouted, loudly enough that a few other people in the pub turned to look at him. He cringed and lowered his voice, but kept the same furious intensity. “That’s the money everyone just gave you! You can’t spend it!”

“Sure I can,” Claude said with a shrug. “I won the bet.”

“You--” Lorenz sputtered to a halt. “How could you...what are you talking about?”

Next to him, Lysithea started to chuckle. “Huh. You knew who the new student was going to be the whole time, didn’t you? That’s why you wanted to start a bet? Because for you it was a sure thing.”

Claude grinned. “Yep. When I was meeting with Lady Rhea my first day, I overheard her talking about the new student. It’s gonna be a young girl, a local from around the monastery.”

“But...but…” Lorenz babbled. “Sylvain said that...Hanneman said that…”

“Funny thing about Professor Hanneman,” Claude said, “if you promise to let him take a look at your crest, he’s surprisingly agreeable to any strange requests you may have, such as letting it slip to his class that the new student is a boy.” He shrugged.

“Wow!” Lysithea said. “You’re a prick, huh?” But she said it in a good-natured way, as if she almost admired that about him.

“I can’t believe you,” Lorenz snapped. “Every time I think I’ve figured out how despicable you are, I find out you’re even worse!”

“Oh, calm down, Lorenz,” Claude snapped back. “Your perfectly symmetrical hair will start steaming. I made some easy money, and I’m using it to get to know some of my classmates a bit better. Besides, it’s not like I stole it. Everyone willingly entered into the bet knowing they might lose their money.”

“But they didn’t know that you were CHEATING!” Lorenz felt like tugging his own hair out, but Claude’s reminder of its perfect, beautiful symmetry stopped him.

“Is he always like this?” Claude asked, turning to Lysithea.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Lysithea said, smirking sidelong at Lorenz, who was now fully oblivious to them, lost in his own little world of ranting anguish.

“Have you known each other a long time? A lot of the other folks in our class seem...close.” Claude was now idly fiddling with a free breadstick from a plate a server had brought over, much like he had been with the chalk earlier.

“Yeah. I guess we have.” Lysithea looked over at Lorenz, and Claude was taken aback by how fond her expression was. “Our territories are right next to each other, so our families worked together a lot. Well, I say ‘worked together,’ but both of my parents are, well, rather passive, and Lorenz’s father is a bit of a control freak, so it was more like we just did what he asked.”

“So that’s where he gets it from,” Claude said with a chuckle, his eyes turning back to Lorenz, who was now sitting with his forehead slammed against the table.

“I think he’s just confused by you,” Lysithea explained. “You’re a noble - the most important young noble in all the Alliance, really - but you don’t fit into what he thinks nobility means. He’s...always been very particular about that kind of thing.”

Lysithea found herself thinking back to a time...well, a time before a lot of things had changed for her. It must have been, gosh, almost ten years ago. She had been visiting Gloucester with her parents, and some of the other children had been bullying her. Even among children her own age, she had always been tiny, and back then she had lacked the means to properly stand up for herself.

“You can’t play with us. You’re just a baby!” They had laughed at her, and she had cried, as if eager to prove their point that she was, in fact, just a baby. She seemed to recall a stuffed bear she had always carried around too, back then. Goddess, she wanted to cringe in shame just at the thought of it.

“What is this? What are you all doing?” a voice had called out. Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, age 10, had been...well, almost exactly like Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, age 18. Just smaller.

“Come on, Lorenz, don’t make her play with us. She’s so weak and all she does is cry!” one of the bullies had protested.

“You bring shame upon the concept of nobility!” Lorenz had snapped back. “It does not matter how small or fragile she may be. It is our duty to stand up in defense of our subjects and our allies.”

Thinking back on it now, the other kids had been...completely unimpressed. The result had not been Lysithea’s inclusion in the group, but Lorenz’s exclusion. And yet, the two of them had become friends through that incident. A friendship that had lasted a few years, until…

Until…

“Lysithea?” Claude was asking, still staring at her.

“Yeah,” she said, snapping out of it. “We’ve known each other a long time.”

Lorenz eventually lifted his head off the table and rejoined the conversation. Thankfully, the subject matter was kept light and casual, thus avoiding any further ideological clashes between himself and Claude. When the server came around and asked what they’d like to eat, Lysithea had re-confirmed that Claude was treating, then ordered two of the most expensive dessert on the menu. Lorenz thanked her, before realizing Lysithea fully intended to eat both herself.

Classes continued during the week. Byleth had stared, amused, at the future classmate guesses, and decided to leave them up on the chalkboard. While most of Tuesday was spent in the classroom going over lectures and strategy, on Wednesday the students of each house were ushered out into the yard outside the classrooms for physical fitness examinations. It was here that the Professors would get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses each student possessed when it came to the practical arts of war.

Lorenz, Raphael, and Ignatz stuck together throughout the day. Despite their lack of nobility, Lorenz found the two men comforting to be around after having devoted so much time and mental energy to Claude. Neither had a sneaky bone in their body. Ignatz was too fundamentally honest, while Raphael was...well, lacking in the necessary creativity, to put it nicely.

Lorenz and Ignats were graded similarly in terms of physical capabilities. Both showed strong promise with the bow and the lance. Lorenz was quite pleased to hear this - he had a great fondness for horseback riding, and believed both weapons could compliment mounted combat spectacularly. Ignatz, too, was overjoyed to learn he had some potential as a knight.

Raphael, unsurprisingly, struggled with the finesse a bow, lance, or sword required, but when it came to axes and hand-to-hand combat, was truly a sight to behold. A training dummy as thick as an oak tree was nearly cleaved clean in half.

“Okay! That’s...wow, that’s enough, Raphael, good job,” Byleth said, her voice cutting through Raphael’s berserker mindset. He dropped the axe on the ground and raised both arms into the air triumphantly.

“Woohoo! Time for lunch!” he cheered.

“No, it’s not,” Byleth corrected.

“No it’s not!” Raphael cheered, arms still in the air.

Still, with the three of their evaluations completed, Lorenz, Ignatz, and Raphael began to wander the yard, watching those students who were still undergoing their tests.

“Hey, boys. Enjoying the show?” It was Sylvain, waggling his eyebrows furiously at them. Lorenz really wished he wouldn’t do that.

“The show?” Ignatz asked, the picture of sincere innocence.

“You know, all the lady students in their exercise uniforms, getting all sweaty, showing their flexibility…” He grinned, until the student next to him, who Lorenz recognized as Felix Fraldarius, elbowed him in the ribs.

“Uhm, right,” Ignatz said, blushing furiously.

“Sure, it’s cool that the girls here know how to fight! Though I bet I could still take on any of ‘em!” Raphael boasted, flexing for all to see.

“....Yeah, totally,” Sylvain said, clearly disappointed that these other boys weren’t quite on his frequency. “What about you, Lorenzo? You must see someone who catches your eye, right?”

Lorenz did not want to give him the satisfaction of an answer, but he found his eyes inevitably drawn to where Professor Hanneman was measuring the proficiencies of those far more adept at the magical arts than the physical. Among the Golden Deer, that included Marianne and Lysithea. Mercedes of the Blue Lions was also with them.

Sylvain made his way over and put an arm around Lorenz, leaning into him conspiratorially. “Ahh, I see. Interesting taste. Not necessarily my style, but I get it.”

“I assure you, I have no idea what you--”

“Hey, it’s cool. Marianne may be a bit weird, but she’s cute. Curvy, nice face. I dig it.”

“--Wait, what.”

“Sylvain, I trust you are not harassing Ser Gloucester?”

Lorenz and Sylvain turned around. A few more of the Blue Lions boys had now joined them, notably Ashe, standing with the discipline of an armored soldier, and Dimitri, the Prince of Faerghus, who had just finished acing the proficiency tests with every type of weapon they had on hand.

“Nah, Dimitri, we’re just chatting!” Sylvain said with a nervous chuckle. “Couple of pals having a jaw, isn’t that right, Lorenz?”

“Indeed,” Lorenz said, noting how even the supposedly close friends of Dimitri seemed to become very nervous around him. He possessed such awesome strength that, even despite his constant overwhelming politeness, the mere idea that one could end up on his bad side was terrifying.

Dimitri walked up between them and followed where their gaze had just been. He watched Marianne and Lysithea appraisingly for a moment. Lysithea was effortlessly casting a barrage of high-level destructive magic at the targets Hanneman was indicating, and Mercedes was struggling to keep up, while Marianne was having a great deal more difficulty. She shook nervously as if unwilling to hurt even a wooden dummy.

“I see,” Dimitri said, clearly suspicious. “Well, we don’t want to disturb anyone still practicing, do we? Why don’t we turn our gazes elsewhere, yes?”

“Fiiine,” Sylvain groaned. “C’mon, Felix, will you at least smile for me if I’m not allowed to look at any of the girls?”

“I will punch you again,” Felix stated.

As Sylvain went to join Felix and Ashe, and Lorenz went to rejoin Ignatz and Raphael, Dimitri turned around ever so briefly to look at the girls casting their magic. He smiled, ever so slightly.

That evening after class, most of the Golden Deer were sitting together in the mess hall enjoying a dinner (or dinners, in Raphael’s case).

“I’ve been renovating that secret room we found,” Hilda said quietly to Lorenz. “I think it’s going to be a great hangout spot soon!”

“That’s good,” Lorenz said. “Have you also been studying the material Professor Byleth has assigned?”

Hilda was suddenly, and quite conveniently, unable to respond due to a mouthful of food. She shrugged instead, batting her eyelashes at Lorenz.

“C’mon, Ignatz, you gotta eat more than that,” Leonie was saying, shoveling more vegetables onto Ignatz’s plate.

“Uhm, right, thank you,” Ignatz said. He was blushing again. Lorenz wondered if the poor boy had been blushing non-stop since that afternoon when Sylvain had pointed out the existence of the fairer sex.

“No, that’s not really how it works,” Lysithea was saying.

“I’m just saying, I can take a punch better than anyone, so I don’t see why you should be afraid to hit me with all you’ve got with one of your magic spells,” Raphael argued.

“Physical strength and resistance to magical effects are entirely different! How do you not know this?” Lysithea shot back.

Claude sat at the edge of the group, watching everyone else's shenanigans with amusement.

Marianne hadn’t been scheduled for cooking duty, but had requested a shift and the assigned student was happy to give it to her and take a night off instead. With just about everyone at the academy happily fed already, she was using her downtime in between cleaning and restocking to prepare a small number of special desserts. She kept anxiously looking over her shoulder at the rest of her classmates sitting together, hoping they wouldn’t get up and leave or come over to check on her too soon, ruining the surprise. Finally, it seemed as if the time was right. She gathered the seven pastries and began to head over.

“Ah, Golden Deer,” Dimitri said, approaching the table from the other direction, with Ashe close behind him. “Ashe and I felt bad about any discomfort our classmate Sylvain may have caused today. As a gesture of goodwill, we went into town and bought some pastries to share with you. Consider it a peace offering from our class to yours.”

“Hey, thanks, my Blaydude,” Claude said, standing up and striding over to clasp his fellow house leader amicably on the shoulder.

“Oooh, yummy! Thanks!” Hilda said excitedly, digging into the pastry that Ashe handed to her.

“I have a bit of a sweet tooth myself,” Ashe said. “If you ever want any recommendations, I’m happy to help, I know all the best places in town.”

“Yes, I would have been lost without Ashe’s help. I have no real sense of taste myself to speak of. Ha!” Dimitri let out a rather forced laugh.

“Well, this is...very kind,” Lorenz said, nodding, though it struck him as more odd than anything. His highly political mind was already working to untangle any ulterior motivation. Was Dimitri attempting to curry favor with the Golden Deer class for a possible alliance against the Black Eagles?

Oh well, the pastries were tasty, and his classmates clearly agreed. Raphael already appeared to be on his third. Lorenz was confident he could help his classmates resist giving the Blue Lions any undue advantage despite the bribery.

Watching from afar, Marianne dumped the desserts she had made into a trash bin. Maybe tomorrow.

And then, before anyone knew it, it was Friday, and the first week of the semester was almost over.

Lorenz had not been regularly joining Leonie on her morning runs, but this morning he found himself awake early and unable to get back to sleep. He decided to dress himself in his training clothes and go look for her, instantly regretting it when the early morning spring air touched his exposed arms and legs, causing them to instantly cover in gooseflesh. He let out a breath and watched the fog form in front of his face.

“Hey, Lorenz!”

He turned. It was not Leonie, but Claude that came over to him. He was dressed similarly, apparently having had the same idea.

“...Hello, Claude,” Lorenz said, trying not to sound too outwardly disdainful, and failing. “Out for a morning run?”

“Yeah. Care to join me?” Claude said, smirking as he stretched, one arm over his head and then the other.

“Sure, I suppose,” Lorenz said, subconsciously mirroring Claude’s stretching, as he had forgotten about that part before the other man showed up. “I was thinking across the bridge, around the outside of the cathedral, and back.”

“Sounds good, I’ll try to keep up.” Claude winked, and began to jog at a leisurely pace. Lorenz made sure to keep abreast of him, refusing to fall behind even when his lungs started to burn.

“So, Lorenz,” Claude said as they neared the bridge, not sounding winded at all. “You and the boys were ogling the ladies without me at the training grounds on Wednesday, eh? No invite for ol’ Claude?”

“I thought you were perfectly capable of scouting out women on your own time,” Lorenz responded, fighting with all his willpower to keep the panting for breath out of his voice. “Didn’t you already have a date, anyway?”

“Yeah, I don’t really know that we hit it off,” Claude said with a shrug. “I’m a hard man to please.”

“Uh huh,” Lorenz replied. “Well, you’re certainly not unpopular with the ladies, as much as it pains me to say it. I’ve no doubt you could have your pick of whomever you wanted, should the mood strike you.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Claude said. “Maybe Lysithea? She’s cute, right?”

Claude glanced sideways and laughed as he saw Lorenz’s expression.

“You’re an open book, Lorenz, you know that?” he said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Lorenz shot back. “And besides, perhaps there is some value to not constantly keeping your true feelings and motivations hidden at all times like you do, hm?”

“Could be, could be,” Claude said with a nod. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to go after Lysithea, or anyone else you may have your eye on. I’ve got more important things to worry about than women. I don’t think I could handle another date like the one I had with Ingrid. I’d be bored out of my mind.”

Lorenz scoffed. “I am sorry us normal students bore you so terribly. It must be difficult, being as interesting as you.”

“It really is a curse. Hey, is that Seteth?”

They were about halfway across the bridge. It was still early enough and the weather cold enough that they hadn’t encountered anyone on their run so far. But sure enough, the assistant to the archbishop was standing along the side of the bridge, staring out into the fog, hands clasped behind his back.

“It is,” Lorenz said. “We best not disturb him--”

“Hey, Seteth!” Claude called over, waving dramatically. “What’s up?”

Seteth turned to face them, and raised an eyebrow in mild annoyance. “Von Riegan. Gloucester. Out for a run, I see. That is good. Taking your health seriously at your age is important.”

“Yeah, Lorenz and I love our health almost as much as we love taking things seriously,” Claude responded with a straight face. Lorenz managed to narrowly resist punching him.

“We are sorry for disturbing your contemplation, sir,” Lorenz said, bowing deferentially. “We’ll be on our way, won’t we, Claude?”

“Ah, I actually was not engaged in idle contemplation. I was watching for someone.” Seteth turned back towards the east, staring through the fog. “I suppose there is no harm in you joining me, as she will be officially joining your class today.”

Lorenz and Claude both perked up at this.

“Wait, she’s coming from...out there?” Claude asked, pointing into the fog. Seteth nodded, eyes still straight ahead.

And then, sure enough, a glimmer of movement could be seen cutting through the fog.

Where moments before there had been only gray oblivion, there was now a resplendent burst of colour heading for them.

“Is that…” Lorenz began.

“...A pegasus?” Claude finished.

Atop the brilliantly white pegasus, a young girl was sitting, adorned in a black and gold academy uniform. Her long green hair, damp from the early morning dew, cascaded past her shoulders. She shook her hair out of her face, a bright grin plastered across it as she turned the pegasus to face Seteth. It smoothly slowed its pace and came cantoring to a halt on the bridge.

“Brother, did you see that? My, what an extraordinary morning!”

“Quite exceptional indeed, Flayn,” Seteth said with a warm smile. It occurred to Lorenz that he had not seen the man smile before. The severity in his face seemed to melt away entirely when he beheld his younger sister.

“Hello, friends! Oh! Ohh!!” Flayn had turned to face her two peers, and was waving excitedly at them. “You must be my new classmates! Oh, I am so excited to meet you! I have waited such a long time to join one of the classes here at Garreg Mach. I promise I will not let you down!”

Lorenz blinked a few times, taken aback by such an onslaught of joy this early in the morning. Finally his senses came back to him, and he bowed. “The pleasure is mine. I am Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, and it is an honor to have you join our class.”

Lorenz turned to Claude, wondering what inane, snarky comment he was going to make to this poor girl.

But Claude didn’t say anything.

Claude was staring at Flayn, as if struck dumb.

And in that instance, Lorenz realized.

Claude had found someone interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and thank you for continuing to read these words that I have put into a specific order for you!
> 
> I had told myself I was going to start writing shorter chapters so I could update more frequently, and as you can see, I have utterly failed. This is the longest chapter yet and I have severely missed my goal of having this chapter be released for Flayn's birthday. OOPS.
> 
> Oh well. I love you and appreciate you, Kind Reader. <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new student leads to some excitement. The first duel. A catchphrase is born.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another "the longest chapter yet" after telling myself they would be shorter and posted more frequently, god damn I'm bad at this.
> 
> Anyway thank you so much to everyone reading and leaving nice comments, it means so much to me!

“Is he...alright?” Flayn asked, watching Claude watch her. She cocked her head slightly to the side, like a puppy waiting to see if she’ll get a treat. Lorenz had to admit it was pretty cute.

“He most certainly better be alright,” Seteth said, and something in his voice caused the machinery of Claude’s mind to snap back into action.

“Claude Von Riegan,” he said, bowing just slightly deeper than Lorenz had. “Head of the Golden Deer class.”

“Oh, what gentlemen you both are!” Flayn giggled. “I can tell I will be in very capable hands.”

“Hrmm,” Seteth grumbled. “Well, regardless, perhaps these two...young men...can escort you to the classroom where you will be properly introduced to everyone. I daresay you should leave the pegasus with me, dear sister.”

Flayn obediently hopped off the pegasus, with a surprising amount of grace and agility. Lorenz watched her curiously for a moment. How old was she? In some ways, notably her size and the childlike wonder on her face, she appeared as young as Lysithea, maybe even a year younger. But something about her attire, the way she carried herself, her incredibly careful speech…

“And Mr. Gloucester, may I speak with you for a moment?”

Lorenz turned to face Seteth. A deep, primal fight or flight instinct was screaming at him to make a run for it while he still had the use of his legs.

“Yes, sir?” Lorenz said, stepping forward obediently. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Claude and Flayn starting to engage in some idle chit chat.

“I love my sister with all my heart,” Seteth said, quietly but with a great intensity. “She is truly a blessed gift of the Goddess. That said, she can be...naive. I would like to have someone I can trust to help keep an eye on her for me.”

Lorenz felt his chest swell up with pride. A personal favor for the hand of the archbishop!

“You come from a noble pedigree. Your family is a known entity. I fear that Claude Von Riegan and Professor Byleth are both a little too...unknown for my tastes.” Seteth paused for a moment. “Should anything happen to my sister--”

“I assure you, sir, nothing shall befall her so long as I draw breath!” Lorenz announced with what he felt was a great deal of gallantry.

“Please do not interrupt me,” Seteth snapped, and Lorenz felt his gallantry shrivel. “Should anything happen to my sister, anything that harms her or dishonors her in any way, I will personally throw you from this bridge. Are we clear?”

Lorenz looked down. It was a long drop.

“Crystal, sir,” he said.

Seteth slapped him on the back, and for the administrative assistant to the head of the church, his arm felt as strong as a steel bar.

“Glad to hear it. Now, off to class. You don’t want to be late, hm?”

Lorenz had to jog a bit to catch back up with Claude and Flayn, who had clearly not seen fit to wait for him.

Flayn was giggling at something Claude had just said. Lorenz hoped the joke hadn’t been too ribald. In the absence of further elaboration on what ‘dishonoring’ would entail, Lorenz decided it probably involved pretty much anything Claude-adjacent.

“I cannot believe that is a custom there! I do hope that someday I am able to visit Almyra,” Flayn said, once she had stopped giggling. “Oh, hello there, Lorenz! I trust my brother was not too cross with you? Claude explained that you have a tendency for rule breaking.”

Lorenz glared at Claude, who grinned and gave a shrug that said ‘it couldn’t be helped.’

“Claude likes to tell jokes. I am actually a very strong advocate for the rule of law,” Lorenz shot back. “No, your brother merely wished to tell me that...he...admires...my hairstyle.”

“Oh,” Flayn said.

“Wow,” Claude said.

“Yes,” Lorenz said.

They walked in silence for a few moments.

“So anyway,” Claude finally said, continuing on as if nothing had happened, “you’re really gonna love our classmates. There’s Hilda, who I really think could be a good influence on you…”

It was still early, but more students and faculty members were now wandering the grounds. The spring air was starting to warm up a bit. The bell signalling the start of classes for the day would ring soon, and then everyone would be in a rush to reach their classroom before the professors started doling out punishment for tardiness.

“Hey! Lorenz, Claude!” Leonie, still in shorts and a loose top from her morning jog, made her way over to them, waving. “Who is-- oh! Is this the new student?”

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Flayn said. “My name is Flayn. What is yours?”

“Uh...Leonie,” she responded, looking uncertainly towards Lorenz and Claude. “What’s with the formal speech? How old are you, Flayn?”

“I am the same age as you!” Flayn responded, with such careful diction it was as if she was reading from an internal teleprompter.

“You’re nineteen?” Leonie asked, sounding doubtful.

A pause.

“Yes.”

“Huh. A bit scrawny for your age, aren’t you?” Leonie asked. She reached out and grabbed one of Flayn’s arms, squeezing it above the elbow. “Not exactly a pinnacle of strength, eh? You a magic user like Lysithea and Marianne?”

“I have a bit of magical aptitude, yes,” Flayn said. “Though my true passion is use of the lance in mounted combat, particularly from the back of a pegasus!”

“Girl, there’s no way you can do any damage with a lance with those noodle arms,” Leonie said with a chuckle. “If you want to pierce someone, you need guns like these. Hyah!” She flexed, showing off her impressive muscular tone in her upper arms.

“Leonie, there’s no need to be so forward,” Lorenz said, trying to defuse the situation.

“I’m sorry, but I’m trying to think of the class here,” Leonie went on. “At the end of the year we’re going to have a big-ass fight with the other two houses, yeah? That means we need all of our members to be performing to the best of their abilities. I just think Flayn here, given her size, should maybe put aside the lance-user dreams and focus on magic or something. Maybe take up healing. You can give me a nice back massage when my muscles are sore!”

“Hmm,” Flayn said, genuinely seeming to ponder this. “Is there any way I could convince you of my aptitude, Leonie? I would hate to have you laboring under the misconception that I am a burden upon the class.”

By now, most of their classmates were arriving at the grounds outside the classroom, and were gathering around to see the mysterious newcomer, and what the confrontation with Leonie seemed to be.

“Wow, she is tiny!” Raphael was saying. “Look at her, Ignatz, she’s smaller than you!”

“Uhm...yes, it would appear so,” Ignatz agreed timidly.

“Oh. My. God. She’s. So. CUTE!” Hilda squealed. “I just want to cover her in glitter and hang her up on my wall!”

“That’s extremely weird,” Lysithea said. “And anyway, you should all know better than to pick on someone because of their size…”

“I’m not trying to pick on her!” Leonie said. “Look, Flayn, you seem like a sweet kid, and I really hope we can be friends. But we’re already at a disadvantage compared to the other houses. Most of their members already had years of combat training from their noble retainers or knights sworn to their families or whatever. Whereas most of us are just commoners who had to kick and scrape our way here. You understand? I don’t want us to lose the Battle of the Eagle and Lion because we were too busy protecting a little kid.”

“I see,” Flayn said, quietly. “I am...sorry you feel that way.”

And then, last to arrive in the crowd, was Byleth. She was hurriedly trying to finish eating a breakfast burrito.

“You know,” she said, after a particularly large gulp, “there actually is a way you can settle this little matter.”

Everyone went quiet, taking a moment to figure out what she meant.

“Oh yeah!” Leonie finally said with a laugh. “Flayn, I challenge you to a duel!”

DUEL: LEONIE VS. FLAYN

News of the first duel of the semester spread fast. The students of the other classes came rushing out to watch as well, their professors quickly abandoning any hope of resuming classes on time. Soon just about everyone was gathered in a circle on the academy grounds, with Leonie, Flayn, and Byleth in the middle.

“Excuse me, make way. I’ve been informed a duel has been initiated, and--” Seteth pushed his way through the crowd, but came to a halt when he saw who was at the center of the action. “FLAYN? You were challenged?”

“Yes, brother! Isn’t this positively exciting?” Flayn said. She truly did seem to be nearly vibrating with energy.

“I...it...it hasn’t even been half an hour…” Seteth responded, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

“The rules of the duel are simple!” Byleth announced. “Each participant shall pick a weapon type! A training weapon of that type will be provided, and the two will duel in single combat until one taps out or is deemed unable to continue fighting by their professor, i.e., me. Do you both agree to abide by these rules?”

“Yep,” Leonie said, doing some warm-up stretches.

“Indeed,” Flayn said with a nod.

“Your weapon preferences?”

Leonie nodded towards Flayn, indicating that she could pick first. “I will take a training lance,” Flayn said. “Even without a pegasus beneath me, I shall prove my worth.”

“Right then. I’ll take an axe. Everyone knows axes are strong against lances, anyway.” Leonie smirked.

The dulled weapons were provided, and Byleth took a step back.

“Let the duel begin!”

Leonie wasted no time. Letting out a battle cry as she charged forward, she swung the axe downwards ferociously, putting enough power behind it to knock Flayn’s tiny frame out of commission in one hit.

However, Flayn was not there. As if having sensed exactly where the attack was aimed, she had dodged out of the way at the last moment, and was now standing safely to the side. Leonie roared and attacked again, but once more Flayn dodged, nimbly ending up somewhere Leonie’s axe very much was not.

Lorenz watched alongside everyone else, impressed at the movements of both women.

“Mm, she’s telegraphing her attacks too much,” someone said by his ear. “Doesn’t matter how hard you swing if the opponent knows where it’s going to land.”

Lorenz looked over his shoulder and saw that the student addressing him was one he didn’t recognize. He was a rather delicate looking young man with green hair, albeit of a dark shade than Flayn’s. He was watching the fight through narrowly slanted eyes, as if the early morning sunlight was irritating to him.

“I think you may be right,” Lorenz said. “However, Flayn is going to have to get lucky and dodge every swing Leonie throws at her. Leonie only has to get lucky and hit once to win.”

Indeed, it seemed as if Flayn had no particular interest in counter-attacking, as this little dance between the two of them continued.

“By the way, I don’t believe we’ve met,” Lorenz said, tearing his gaze away from the fight long enough to look back at the other student. “Lorenz Hellman Gloucester, Golden Deer house. And you are?”

The other student yawned in his face. “Oh dear. Introductions. Such a bother.” For a moment Lorenz thought he was going to leave it at that and walk away, but after a moment’s deliberation, he added, “Linhardt Von Hevring. So, who are you rooting for?”

Lorenz looked back at his dueling classmates. “I suppose I hadn’t considered it. They are both my classmates, so I don’t have any reason to show one favoritism over the other.”

“Bets! Taking bets! Who will win? Leonie the warrior woman or Flayn the graceful pegasus knight? Taking all bets!” Claude was calling out, wandering through the crowd. Quite a few students were making their way over to him with coin purses in hand.

“What gaudy behaviour,” Lorenz muttered, turning back to Linhardt, but the other student had disappeared. Lorenz craned his neck to search the crow for him, and saw he had wandered off to a far wall of the courtyard and appeared to be slumped against it for a nap.

Finally, Leonie and Flayn had separated from each other, and were now standing at opposite ends of the dueling ring, slowly circling each other, looking for any sort of opening. Leonie was covered in a fine layer of sweat, and her breaths were coming to her in ragged gasps. Flayn, on the other hand, still looked entirely composed and unaffected.

Lysithea slid her way through the crowd to find herself by Lorenz’s side. “This is more intense than I expected,” she said. “Leonie is going to have to end this soon before Flayn wins through pure attrition.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Lorenz agreed. “I wouldn’t count Leonie out yet, though. I’m sure she has another trick up her sleeve.”

Leonie charged in once more. As with most of her previous attacks, she began by swinging her axe into the air, preparing to once more bring it down towards Flayn in a downward arc. However, as Flayn prepared to sidestep it once again, Leonie shifted course, and brought the axe around horizontally at a much lower angle, clearly hoping to hit Flayn’s legs and trip her up.

Flayn leapt into the air, her entire body rising up and above the axe. And then she landed on it.

She was standing on the flat of the axe, as if floating weightlessly in the air.

In an instant, her lance was levelled before her, and Flayn was running up the hilt of the axe, and then the blunted tip was piercing into Leonie’s left shoulder and they were both falling backwards, Flayn landing heavily on Leonie’s chest. The axe clattered away from her hand.

The courtyard was silent for a moment, before it erupted in cheers. Flayn stood up, daintily dusting herself off, and then held out a hand to Leonie.

Leonie glared up at her, and for a moment Lorenz felt a terrible fear that Leonie would slap the hand away.

But then she accepted the hand and was brought back to her feet.

“Damn, girl! That was amazing!” she said. With her hand still clasped in Flayn’s, she raised both of their arms up into the air. “This girl’s a Golden Deer, alright! Fear the Deer, baby!”

Lorenz let out a sigh of relief. Leonie was ambitious, but not so prideful as to take a defeat like that personally. For now it seemed as if the plan had worked perfectly: the duel had proven Flayn’s worth to everyone beyond a shadow of a doubt, and brought the two closer together.

“Alright, here’s your payout, minus the 5% bookie fee, pleasure doing business with you,” Claude was saying somewhere in the crowd, handing out some cash from the bets - and pocketing a fair amount as well.

Our duel will have a different outcome, Claude, Lorenz thought to himself. I am going to embarrass you so thoroughly you’ll never want to show your face in Fodlan again…

After that, Flayn integrated into the Golden Deer class quickly and easily. Aside from Leonie, with whom she had built a fast playful friendship-slash-rivalry, she also seemed to have taken a liking to Lysithea, the two smaller girls bonding during their study period.

When the final bell rang at the end of the day, everyone let out a collective sigh of relief - except for Raphael, who was too busy yelling, “dinner time!” The first week of classes was over. They had survived and were on their way to becoming graduates of the Officer’s Academy.

Most of the students left quickly to go grab some food and get a head start on their weekend, when classes were not held and students were by and large given free run of the monastery and surrounding area. Lorenz stayed behind, packing up his textbooks and supplies, as did Lysithea and Flayn, who were giggling together about...something. There were many deep, dark mysteries of the universe that Lorenz was ignorant of, and what girls giggle about amongst themselves was certainly one of them.

Finally finished, he got up, left the classroom, and collided with a brick wall.

After picking himself up, he saw it was not a brick wall so much as it was Seteth, watching him irritably. The hand of the archbishop had not so much as flinched when Lorenz slammed bodily into him. Just how strong WAS this guy..?

“Ah, Mr. Gloucester,” he said, very pointedly not helping Lorenz back to his feet. “I note that the school day is now over and the weekend is upon you. No doubt you plan to eagerly begin frolicking, or lollygagging, or whatever activities the youth partake in these days.”

“Uh,” Lorenz replied.

“However, I trust you have not forgotten our agreement from this morning?” Seteth continued. “The one where you watch over Flayn, and I continue to not accidentally toss you from the bridge. I simply wanted to make clear that such agreement does not end when class is dismissed. That is obvious, yes?”

“Of course,” Lorenz’s mouth answered before his brain even had time to process.

“Good! Ah, my beautiful sister,” he said, as Lorenz could tell Flayn and Lysithea were approaching behind him.

“Hello, brother. I hope you are not harassing my classmate - and friend - Lorenz, are you?” Flayn replied.

“I would not dream of it,” Seteth replied. “I simply wanted to ensure your first day of class did not end in any further armed combat. Now that you have some free time, perhaps your classmates here - Mr. Gloucester and Ms. Ordelia - would like to be your guests this evening? Escort you around the campus grounds, doing whatever it is you wish to do for recreational purposes?”

“Why, that sounds lovely!” Flayn said, joy gushing out of every word. “Thank you both so much for offering.”

Lorenz and Lysithea shared a glance of recognition that neither of them had, in fact, volunteered for this.

“Sure, we’d love to, Flayn,” Lysithea finally said. “Why don’t we all go wander through town and find somewhere to eat?”

“Ought to be a bit nicer without Claude there, anyway,” Lorenz muttered.

“Well, you children have fun! But not...TOO much fun,” Seteth said, waving them off. Lorenz did not want to spend too long dwelling on the implications of that second part.

In town, aside from a few sit-down pubs and restaurants like the one Claude had taken them too, there were also a number of street vendors selling simple and cheaper but also oddly satisfying meals. Lorenz, Lysithea, and Flayn purchased some sausages-in-a-bun and found a nice park bench overlooking a river to sit and enjoy them.

“Everyone has been so friendly today,” Flayn said, in between vigorous bites of her greasy meal. “Leonie was a bit intense at first, I admit, but I am glad that the duel brought us closer. The last thing I would want is to cause friction between anyone in the class!”

“Yeah, everyone’s pretty cool. Except Lorenz, of course,” Lysithea said, looking over and sticking her tongue out teasingly at him.

“Ah, I see you have decided to relinquish your noble title to pursue a career in professional comedy,” Lorenz responded.

“Ooh, banter! How I long to partake in banter with a close friend,” Flayn said wistfully. “Someone to whom I can say, you are a big dumb idiot head, and they will laugh and know I am joking with them, and in truth, greatly respect their intelligence and wisdom!”

Lysithea coughed awkwardly. “Yeah. I guess.”

“I must also admit, I…” Flayn paused for a moment, looking out over the river. “I am curious about your house leader, Mr. Von Riegan. Sorry, Claude, I really must remember to refer to my classmates and friends in a more casual manner!”

Lorenz scoffed.

“Don’t mind him,” Lysithea said. “He and Claude just have...ideological differences.”

“Oh? Like what?” Flayn asked, the picture of innocent curiosity. “He seemed very friendly and fun when we spoke earlier.”

Lorenz turned to face the two girls. “Well, Flayn, did you know he’s used you to swindle money out of people twice now?”

“Lorenz…” Lysithea said, trying to calm him down.

“No, she should know this,” Lorenz snapped. “Mr. Von Riegan, Mr. Friendly and Fun, knew you were going to be the new classmate and then lied to all of us to get us to bet money on who you were. He even planted a rumor that you were a boy so we’d bet incorrectly!”

“That is...not very honorable,” Flayn said, a look of shock on her face.

“Oh, he was also playing both sides during your duel with Leonie this morning, taking bets on who would win and keeping a healthy cut of all the profits for himself.”

“He did?” Flayn’s eyes were growing wide and watery. Lysithea was stomping on Lorenz’s foot, trying to get him to stop, but he was on a roll.

“Oh, yes! And let’s not forget his use of poison in order to win fights, or the fact that he came out of absolutely nowhere to slide ahead of me in the line of succession to be the next Duke of the Leicester Alliance! He is nothing but a...a...lying, cheating phony!”

“That’s horrible,” Flayn said, nearly on the verge of tears. “I had...no idea…” She took a few deep breaths, and seemed to calm down. “I think I’d like to go back to the dorms now, please.”

“Flayn, we can all still be friends, this isn’t that big of a--” Lysithea began, but Flayn cut her off.

“Of course. But I am quite tired, and would like to get to bed early. Thank you.” She stood up from the bench and began to hustle back towards the monastery, without waiting for Lysithea or Lorenz.

The sun was now completely gone from the sky, late Friday night having descended upon the campus. Professor Byleth was trying to stumble her way back to her room. She was stumbling because it was dark, NOT because she had gone out drinking with Professor Manuela. She HAD gone drinking, but that was NOT why she was stumbling. She was FINE.

Hic.

The Gods of Comedic Timing would have preferred if she had crashed directly into Flayn as the young girl hurried back to her dorm, but Byleth was, truly, a bit too tough to be reduced to a complete idiot after just a few drinks. Flayn may have been a bit blurry, but the Professor was able to tell she was coming and divert course in the knick of time.

“Whoa, Flayn! Where’s the fire?” she asked, spinning around as the student passed her.

“I assure you, if there has been any arson, I am not aware of it. I am sorry, but I must return to my room, Brother will be quite worried about me,” Flayn replied curtly, preparing to head off again.  
“Hey! Flayn, wait,” Byleth called out, dashing forward a few steps, nearly losing her footing, but managing to catch herself by reaching out and grasping Flayn’s arm. “Is everything alright? Today was your first day in class, and as your Professor, I want to make sure it went well and everyone is treating you well.”

Flayn squirmed slightly. She debated lying, but she knew from experience that she was not very good at it. Diverting a subject was one thing, but telling a blatant falsehood to her beloved Professor who was staring at her so intently?

“I fear I have learned something...rather unsettling about one of my classmates, and it has put me in a bit of a saddened mood. It is...it is nothing, though, I don’t want to worry you.”

“This isn’t about Leonie, is it? I thought you two were cool after your duel,” Byleth asked.

“No! No, Leonie has been wonderful, as has...well...almost everyone…” Flayn bit her lip, and sighed. “Please do not think I am complaining. I am just...musing. Okay?”

Byleth nodded. “I understand. This is off the record. Just two girls gabbing.” She winked.

Flayn closed her eyes, and took the plunge. “It’s Lorenz. He does not like Claude, and was badmouthing him to me earlier. The thought of two of my classmates and I wish I could find some way to help them get along, but…”

Byleth shrugged. “Well, they’re both...strong-willed kids. And polar opposites. But they’re both GOOD kids, and even though I’ve only known them a week, I feel pretty confident about that. They’ll come around. Just like you and Leonie did after your duel, right?”

Flayn gasped. Oh, it was all so SIMPLE.

“I think I understand. Thank you very much, Professor.” Flayn bowed. Byleth, unsure how to respond, bowed back awkwardly.

“Glad I could help...I think?” Byleth said, but Flayn was already running off, an excited skip now added to her step.

“You can be a real ass sometimes, Lorenz,” Lysithea said, as the two of them slowly made their way back to the monastery.

“You cannot ask me not to speak my mind,” Lorenz replied. “I will endeavour to show Claude the respect his title commands, to the best of my ability, but if the subject of his behaviour arises, I will be unable to hold my tongue.”

Lysithea shook her head. “Whatever. I really shouldn’t let myself get wrapped up in your little drama anyway. The last thing I want is for it to affect my grades…”

Lorenz chuckled. “Like anything could harm your academic record. You’re already the strongest student in the Golden Deer, easily. Maybe even all of Garreg Mach.”

Lysithea awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. “Well, I don’t know about that,” she muttered.

“I do,” Lorenz said. “And I am not trying to flatter you. What I said about Claude is true about you as well: I am unable to do anything but speak the truth when asked my estimation of people. And you...I don’t think there’s any stopping you.”

Lorenz suddenly realized Lysithea had fallen very quiet. He wondered if he had upset her in some way. He was also acutely aware of how closely together they were walking, side by side…

“Lorenz, I…” she began. “I think maybe I should tell you…”

“Oh, there you two are!”

And there, descending upon them with the inevitability of a valkyrie coming from the heavens to retrieve a dying viking from the battlefield, was Hilda Valentine Goneril.

“I’ve been looking all over for you!” Hilda exclaimed, grabbing Lorenz’s arm with her left hand and Lysithea’s arm with her right. “Come on, come on!”

“Hilda, what are you--” Lorenz began to ask, but he was dragged off without any further heed. For a girl who had spent all week adamantly avoiding any physical labour, she was practically carrying them both with the ease he would have expected from Raphael.

“Hilda I’m gonna puke! I just finished my second dessert!” Lysithea yelled. “Where are we going!?”

“This way, this way!” Hilda cheered, not slowing her pace at all. Lorenz began to realize that they were heading north of their dorms, towards the hidden room they had found before the first week of classes had begun. And sure enough, one lone room in this largely abandoned section of the monastery was aglow with candlelight pouring out into the evening air.

They could hear voices from inside.

Finally, Hilda all but threw Lorenz and Lysithea threw the door.

Three small loveseats had been set up inside. Normally there was only one per dorm room so Hilda must have dragged two more into here. Two crates were also placed in the far back corners of the room, making for eight places to sit total. Raphael and Ignatz were sitting on the loveseat on the left side of the room, Claude was sitting on the one in the center, and Leonie was hanging over the back of it, languishing like a cat. Hilda had also filled out the wall-mounted shelves with a variety of books and board games that she had presumably found around the monastery or purchased in town.

Hilda moved around them to take a seat on the crate in the back left corner of the room. “I tried to find Marianne, but I’ve no idea where she went. I banged and banged and banged on the door to her room, but she didn’t answer, so she must not be in there.”

“Or you scared the piss out of her and she’s hiding under her bed now,” Leonie said with a laugh.

Lorenz took a seat next to Claude, Leonie still dangling between them, and Lysithea went over to the other available crate.

“Huh. This is...what is this?” Lysithea asked.

Hilda clapped her hands together excitedly. “I’ve been working on it off and on all week! It was Lorenz’s and my idea. A little hangout spot where we can all play together outside of class! This way we’ll be closer together than any of the other houses!”

“Wow, that’s...actually really amazing,” Ignatz said, blushing with joy.

“Seriously! I just hope I don’t break any of these tiny couches…” Raphael added.

“You worked on this too, Lorenz?” Lysithea asked, looking at him intently.

“Hilda is being modest,” Lorenz answered. “I was aware of the existence of the room, but...all this work to make it livable...that was all her.” He turned to face Hilda, and nodded. “You did a very impressive job, Hilda. I’m proud of you.”

Hilda beamed with pride, and made her way over to Lorenz. She knelt down in front of him, putting her head in his lap.

“What is happening,” Lorenz asked, looking around at everyone else.

“You praised me! So pat my head!” Hilda demanded.

“I...do not want to do that.”

“Aw, heck, I’ll do it,” Claude said. He reached out and eagerly gave Hilda’s hair a pat. “Well done. Really well done.”

“I want in on that,” Leonie said, reaching forward and adding her hand to Claude’s.

“Hell yeah! I used to give Maya headpats for a job well done all the time,” Raphael said, standing up and going over to join in.

“I, uh...I guess if we’re all doing this,” Ignatz said awkwardly.

“Come on, Lorenz,” Lysithea said, hitting him in the shoulder as she passed him. “We’re just missing your hand now.”

Lorenz rolled his eyes, but added his hand to the pile. There were now six of them, their hands messily lumped on top of each other, resting on top of Hilda’s head, which still lay on top of Lorenz’s lap. She had her eyes closed and a look of bliss on her face.

“Hey Leonie, what was that thing you said this morning, after the duel?” Claude asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Leonie asked.

“You blurted out something that I thought was really catchy. What was it...oh! Right!” Claude snapped his fingers as he remembered. “Fear the Deer!”

“Hah! That’s right, it just sort of came to me,” Leonie said with a nod. “Fear the Deer!”

“Fear the Deer!” Raphael bellowed.

“Fear the Deer!” Lysithea chorused.

“F-fear the Deer!” Ignatz joined in, his voice cracking.

“Fear the Deer!” Hilda said with a giggle.

All eyes turned towards Lorenz, who sighed.

“Fear the Deer,” he said, to much cheering.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Deer play a game. Dimitri reassess his leadership strategy. Lysithea and Flayn enjoy a peaceful moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! If you are reading this, then I love you.
> 
> The D key on my laptop has been sticking, so I apologize for any D-related typos. I *think* I caught all the Claue's and imitri's but I may have missed some.
> 
> As always, feedback is appreciated!

And then, about 30 seconds later.

“Alright, please stop kneeling in front of me,” Lorenz implored Hilda.

Hilda winked, stood up, and returned to one of the empty seats.

“So, hey, you mentioned trying to find Marianne, but what about Flayn?” Raphael asked. “She’s one of us now, too, right?”

“The big guy brings up a good point,” Claude said, successfully coming across as nonchalant. Lorenz shot him a look, but before he could blurt anything out, Lysithea loudly cleared her throat.

“Why don’t you let me handle Flayn?” she said. “I don’t want you boys scaring her off.”

Lorenz blushed. He was grateful to her for covering for his scaring off Flayn earlier.

“That’s fair. I guess I am pretty intimidating,” Raphael said. “Hey, Ignatz, think fast!”

“What? Why--” Ignatz began, before finding himself trapped in a headlock by Raphael. “Augh! Let go! Hraagh!”

Ignatz futilely beat his fists against Raphael’s arms, giving the impression of an ant trying to knock over a major fortification.

“Well, since we’ve all got the day off tomorrow, and we’ve clearly got some aggression to burn off,” Claude said, laughing at Raphael’s and Ignatz’s shenanigans, “why don’t we all meet up and do some training? As house leader I’m allowed to decree that, right?”

“Hell yeah,” Leonie said, finally pushing herself away from the back of the loveseat and stretching like a cat. “I’m gonna go hit the hay early so I can go for a pre-morning run run.”

“I do not understand you at all,” Hilda said, watching her leave in awe. “I mean, I understand wanting to go to bed, but mostly because being awake is hard.”

“Well, I’ll talk to Flayn and meet up with you guys in the morning,” Lysithea said. “Look forward to kicking your asses at the training grounds.”

“Hohoh! That’s what I like to hear!” Claude cheered. “Night, Lys.”

“Yes, good night, Lysithea,” Lorenz nearly shouted, determined not to let Claude have the last good night.

“Later, guys!” Raphael said, heading for the door.

“R-Raphael, can you please stop, uh, strangling me to death,” Ignatz pleaded as he was dragged along behind him. Hilda followed, yawning dramatically.

And that left Claude and Lorenz.

Claude reached out and slapped Lorenz on the shoulder good-naturedly.

“Well, smell ya later,” he said.

Lorenz watched him go, and sat alone for a time.

On Saturday morning, Marianne woke up with deep bags under her eyes. She never seemed to feel like she had actually slept upon waking up.

Still. Today was a bright new day. Today she was going to make a friend.

With great determination in her heart, she cleaned up in front of her mirror, got dressed, and practiced smiling a few times. She understood the theory - lifting the edges of your mouth up so as to assure your conversational partner, also known as a ‘friend,’ that you are non-threatening. However, whenever she did it, people asked her if she was feeling ill, needed to lay down, or wanted a bucket to throw up in.

“Okay,” she said to herself. “Flayn’s a friendly young girl. She’s no one to be afraid of, and she has no reason to be afraid of you either. You can do this.”

She left her room and made her way down the hall of the dormitory. As there were no classes today, students were still lounging about idly, in no particular hurry to be anywhere. A few waved at Marianne as she passed, causing her to wince nervously, but she kept her head down and pushed forward, refusing to be deterred.

“Hi, Flayn, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today,” Marianne said under her breath. “Hi, Flayn, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today. Hi, Flayn, I was hanging if you wanted to wander out to...no, no, no! Keep it together, Marianne!”

There, ahead of her, was the door to Flayn’s room. Just raise your hand and knock. Just raise your hand, knock on the door, and ask if she wants to hang out. It will be totally fun and good and normal.

Her hand lifted into the air. It was shaking from her nerves and adrenaline. It was almost at the door. Soon, her knuckles would be rapping across the wood, and it would be too late to turn back--

“Hey, Marianne. What’s up?” said Lysithea.

Wait, where did she come from!?

“The rest of the Golden Deer were going to meet up outside and do some training together,” Lysithea said. “I was on my way to invite Flayn, but I’m glad I caught you. You should come join us too--”

“I-I’m very sorry!” Marianne blurted out. She bowed politely, then turned and ran back down the hall, into her own room, and slammed the door shut.

“That was weird,” Lysithea said. She knocked on Flayn’s door.

“Ah! Lysithea, my dear friend and classmate!” Flayn said, opening the door. Despite it being early morning and Flayn having still been in her room, she already looked adorable, well dressed. Lysithea wondered briefly if she just woke up like that.

“Hey, Flayn,” Lysithea responded. “A bunch of us were going to head out and--”

“Ah! I just realized. I said ‘dear’ friend and classmate, as in, you are very dear to my heart, but as we are members of the Golden Deer class, it could serve as a pun, or a play on words, with multiple meetings! Hahaha!”

“...Yeah,” Lysithea said. “Anyway, a bunch of us were going to head out and do some training together. Care to join us?”

“Oh, I would love nothing more! Thank you for thinking to invite me.”

As Flayn stepped past her into the hallway, Lysithea looked down towards Marianne’s room.

“Hm,” she said with a shrug, and left with Flayn.

“Look who finally decided to show up,” Claude said with a smirk. He had a leather ball about the size of a closed fist in his right hand, and was tossing it up into the air repeatedly before catching it.

“Hey, Claude,” Lysithea said.

“Good day, Claude!” Flayn said with a good deal more pep. She offered a curtsy in Claude’s direction, causing the house leader’s cheeks to redden ever so slightly.

Lorenz, Leonie, Raphael, and Ignatz were already there. Even Hilda had managed to pry herself out of bed, though she seemed to have every intention of serving as cheerleader to the training session.

“I was thinking we could have a little friendly competition,” Claude said, tossing the ball up into the air again.

“The last time you suggested a friendly competition, you cheated and won a bunch of money off everyone,” Lorenz said, watching him suspiciously.

“No money needs to change hands, this is all about strength and skill,” Claude went on. “One person throws the ball. The person they throw it at has to catch it cleanly in their hands - if it hits their body first, they lose.”

“Ooh, sounds like it’ll be fun to watch,” Hilda said. “You guys have fun playing--”

“Think fast, Hilda!” Claude announced, and whipped the ball at her as hard as he could. Hilda shrieked, but put her hands up and caught it.

“Ow!” she yelped. “No fair, meanie.”

“Come on, Hilda, right here!” Raphael chanted, clapping his hands together. “Try to get it past my iron defenses! There’s no way you can manage it.”

Hilda twirled the ball around in her hand a few times, eyeing him up. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she finally said. “Leonie!”

The ball went flying past Raphael, and Leonie picked on on her cue, bolting with amazing speed across the field to catch the ball. She spun around mid-air, threw the ball again, and clonked Raphael on the shoulder.

“Ack! Wow! I can’t believe you hit me!” Raphael said, grinning. He was clearly impressed.

“Ever heard the phrase ‘hit the broad side of a barn?’ I think that applies to your physique,” Lorenz said with a dry chuckle.

“Oh yeah? You want a try, buddy?” Raphael asked, picking up the ball and hurling it towards Lorenz.

In terms of raw mass Lorenz was barely half the size of Raphael, but he managed to react fast enough to get a good grip on the ball before it could punch a hole straight through him. He pivoted and threw it towards Claude as quickly as he could, but Claude caught it effortlessly and gave an exaggerated yawn.

“I knew you’d go for me, Lorenz. You’re too predictable.” He winked, and threw the ball at Flayn, who also caught it.

“Ooh, me! Try me again!” Raphael yelled excitedly.

“You’re already out!” Ignatz explained, but Flayn giggled and threw the ball at Raphael. This time he caught it.

Round and round it went. Everyone got hit several times, but nobody seemed to bother keeping score, of figuring out who was winning and who had lost. The hours wore on, and they spent most of the day playing this game.

“Professor Hanneman!”

The Professor of the Blue Lions class looked up from his desk. It wasn’t often anyone willingly came into his office. Usually he had to drag them in kicking and screaming.

“Master Blaiddyd,” he said, gently closing the book he had been reading. “To what do I owe this...surprise visit?”

Dimitri Alexander Blaiddyd stood in the doorway, his posture perfectly straight, hands clasped behind his back. He was wearing his school uniform, despite students being allowed to dress how they pleased on weekends.

“It was my understanding that missions off the monastery grounds would be available to us on weekends?” he asked, after clearing his throat politely. “Fending off swarms of bandits, and the like.”

“I see. You wish that there were more bandits, do you?” the Professor responded, arching his brow. “A bit more pillaging going on so we would have a need for a young hero like yourself to swoop in and save the day?”

“That is...obviously not what I meant,” Dimitri responded, choosing his words carefully. “I merely meant...if there IS any such wrongdoing going on, I would be happy to assist in putting a stop to it. You need not hesitate to push your class to the test, Professor! We shall rise to meet any challenge!”

Hanneman watched him for a moment, then slowly stood up from behind his desk and stepped forward. “Dimitri, I realize that part of being a Lord is waging righteous battles and defending the innocent with a zealous swing of your blade and all that assorted nonsense,” he said. “And we intend to do our very best to prepare you for such scenarios here at the Officer’s Academy. But another part of being a Lord, a truly good and beloved Lord, is doing absolutely nothing because times are good. You cannot go out looking for a war every weekend because you are bored or eager to prove yourself. I recommend you find another hobby to fill the hours until such time as your swordsmanship is needed.”

Dimitri was silent for a moment, then he bowed deeply. “I apologize for imposing, Professor. I will take my leave now.”

“There is no need to apologize, my door is always open,” Hanneman said, returning to his seat. “For example, if you decide a rewarding hobby is letting me test the boundaries of that crest of yours and he’s gone. Of course.” He sighed and opened his book once more.

As he made his way downstairs from the floor the Professor’s offices were on, he began to hear the distinct sounds of light combat mixed with laughter. Training! Perhaps his classmates were--

Rounding a corner, he saw that it was instead the Golden Deer class. Doing...absolutely nothing more important than hitting each other with a leather ball. And yet, they were united as one unit, while he didn’t know where half of his classmates were at the moment.

“Interesting,” he said under his breath. “That Von Riegan actually knows what he’s doing...he’s going to be a tough one to beat, I imagine…”

He made his way past without drawing their attention. They were in a field outside the training grounds, and he slipped into the grounds themselves. There was only one person in there currently, and it was his classmate Mercedes.

He watched with a great deal of amusement as she attempted to attack a stationary training dummy with a sword. He had observed that her skill with magic was quite strong, but her form and footwork as she practiced her swordplay was…

He chuckled, which caused her to turn around. When she did so, he cleared his throat, and bowed his head in apology.

“Forgive me, Mercedes. I did not mean to intrude,” he insisted.

“Oh, Dimitri,” Mercedes said with a defeated sigh. “You’re not intruding, I’m just flailing about like an imbecile. I can’t seem to get the hang of this at all.”

Dimitri smiled and stepped forward. “There is nothing imbecilic about it. You are here, striving to better yourself, which is more than I can say for myself, or our other classmates. May I assist you? Your stance is a bit off.”

Mercedes nodded, smiling back warmly at him. Dimitri gently grabbed her arms and helped move them into a stronger position. Her long, platinum hair tickled his face as he did so.

He may not have had Claude’s charisma, but every leader had to start somewhere.

As evening wore on and the Golden Deer grew tired and sore from mercilessly attacking each other, they began to split up and go their separate ways.

Lorenz made his way towards the dining hall. He was starving, and had to admit that game had been a pretty good workout. It had also been...pretty fun.

He grimaced at the thought. So Claude fell ass-backwards into one good idea. That still didn’t make him fit to be a leader!

“Goddess, I’m hungry,” Claude said, sneaking up behind him and throwing an arm around his shoulders. “Good stuff today, though, eh Lorenzy?”

“Please don’t call me Lorenzy,” Lorenz replied. “I’ll admit, it was...an entertaining way to spend the afternoon. I do hope not all your weekend plans are quite so frivolous, of course.”

“Oh, of course,” Claude responded, mocking Lorenz’s haughty tone. “Come on, let’s just go eat.”

Inside the dining hall, Marianne had once again been furiously cooking. Sure, she had dropped the ball earlier, utterly panicked and ran away rather than agreed to spend time with her classmates. But she had to make up for lost ground. She was going to cook them all an amazing dinner now that they’d finished their game, and prove that she was a valuable member of the team in her own way!

Of course, due to the large number of students, faculty, knights, and church officials who ate at the dining hall, there were usually multiple cooks working the same shift. Further down the counter from her was a man named Dedue, of the Blue Lions house. He was, physically speaking, one of the most terrifying individuals Marianne had ever seen, but so far she had managed to stay calm and polite with him due to his soft-spoken nature. While Marianne was looking forward to feeding her classmates after a hard day of training, Dedue had the exact same ambition, and following after Lorenz and Claude was Dimitri.

Marianne and Dedue both looked slyly over their shoulders and saw Lorenz, Claude, and Dimitri taking a seat together. They each turned back to the food they were preparing, eager to hurry and finish.

Marianne was putting the finishing touches on her meal - a tray of beast meat teppanyaki, carefully grilled to perfection and uniformly sliced for optimum tenderness. She was adding the layer of fruit, when she saw Dedue grab his finished meal and start heading towards the table. With a gasp, she grabbed her tray and attempted to rush past him, but Dedue moved with a determined quickness of his own.

“Ah, Dedue! Claude, Lorenz, have you had a chance to try Dedue’s cooking? He is really quite exquisite,” Dimitri said as his classmate approached.

“My lord is too kind,” Dedue said, nodding slightly towards Claude and Lorenz. “I merely do what I can to help satisfy the royal pallet.”

“Yet, as I’ve explained repeatedly, I have essentially no sense of taste,” Dimitri said with a chuckle. “What is this, a cheese gratin?”

Dedue bowed. “Yes, with fresh chicken breast.”

“It looks and smells delicious, but would be wasted on me alone,” Dimtri said, turning to his other companions. “Please, you two, I insist that you help yourselves.”

“A meal fit for a king? Don’t mind if I do,” Claude said, helping himself to a plate.

“Your offer is most generous, Dimitri,” Lorenz said, following Claude’s lead with a good deal more decorum.

As the three of them began to dig in, Claude looked up and saw Marianne standing there with a tray of food.

“Wow, Marianne, you’re gonna eat all that?” he said. “Growing girl, eh?”

She sat down, and let the tray of meats thud onto the table in front of her.

“Yes…” she said quietly, and began to force it all down.

When the training game had wrapped up and the Golden Deer began to go their separate ways for the evening, Lysithea made a point to chase after Flayn and tug at her sleeve.

“Ah, Lysithea, hello,” Flayn said. They fell into step alongside each other, heading back from the training grounds to the dorms.

“I was thinking of visiting the sauna to relax tonight,” Lysithea said. “I was wondering if you wanted to join me?”

“A sauna?” Flayn responded, tapping her chin. “That sounds interesting! I do not know if I’ve ever been to one before! I don’t actually have much experience singing, honestly.”

Lysithea blinked a few times. “I think you’re thinking of sonnet,” she finally said. “A sauna is, like...a hot, steamy room that you sit in. It helps relax your muscles after a good work out. The monastery has two, one for the boys and one for the girls.”

“I see!” Flayn said, her interest piqued. “I suppose this is to avoid the possibility of Funny Business, as my brother would say? Well, if it’s just us girls, should we invite the others? I’m sure Hilda would enjoy anything relaxing like that.”

“No!” Lysithea blurted out. When Flayn gave her an odd look, she coughed awkwardly. “I would just...feel more comfortable if it were just the two of us. If you don’t mind.”

Flayn smiled. “Of course I don’t mind. I will cherish any chance to get closer to you, my dear friend and classmate!”

The two made their way to the monastery saunas. The boys and girls rooms were right next to each other, though currently it didn’t seem like anyone was in either. Lysithea and Flayn entered the changing room first, each getting into the special, loose-fitting beige outfits designed for relaxing in the sauna.

When Lysithea stepped out of the changing room and into the sauna, she saw Flayn and sighed.

“What is it?” Flayn asked, looking up at her.

Lysithea’s eyes were momentarily lingering on Flayn’s chest, which had a noticeable curve to it that was normally hidden by her school uniform. Lysithea, on the other hand, looked as if someone had draped the outfit over a washboard.

“Nothing,” Lysithea said. “Whatever.”

This was exactly why she hadn’t wanted Hilda to come! The last thing she wanted was to draw attention to her...youthful features. She had thought Flayn had a similar figure to her, but the girl apparently had her secrets.

“Well, this is quite nice, and I thank you for inviting me!” Flayn said, taking a seat.

Lysithea smiled, moving to pour some water onto the coals. “It hasn’t actually started yet, Flayn. Gotta create some steam first. See?”

“Wow!” Flayn said, as if she were seeing a magic trick.

Lysithea sat down next to her, letting herself slump a bit. She wouldn’t normally let her guard down quite this much, but she felt safe around Flayn, even though she didn’t really know much about her.  
“So, Lysithea, tell me a bit about yourself,” Flayn said, apparently having the same train of thought. “What was your childhood like?”

Lysithea felt her blood run cold, despite the overwhelming heat of the sauna.

“Oh, you know,” she said with a forced laugh. “Very normal childhood. Nothing interesting to talk about there, really. How about you?”

Was it her imagination, or did Flayn just freeze up as well?

“Yes! Very normal childhood here, too. Ha ha! How nice it is that we both had very normal childhoods, with nothing interesting in them to talk about.”

On some level they each knew the other was lying, but they also knew that confronting the other about their lie would bring up the fact of their own lie. And so, the subject was dropped.

“You were pretty good with that lance when you fought Leonie,” Lysithea said. She could feel a fine layer of sweat covering her now. It was an oddly pleasant sensation, like the negative energy of the day was seeping out of her pores. “I’ll admit I’ve got pretty strong magical abilities, but I don’t seem to have the physique for physical combat, outside of something quick like a sword.”

“My brother was rather insistent that I learn some manner of physical combat for self defense,” Flayn said. “The lance seemed to suit me well, especially because I oh so enjoy staying on the back of a pegasus. Of course, I have some magical abilities as well.”

That got Lysithea’s attention. She sat upright again, and grinned. “Yeah? We should duel sometime, if you’re interested. I’d love to go up against another mage.”

Flayn grinned, and turned her head towards the hot coals in the center of the room. She lifted a hand, and one of the coals lifted up along with it.

“Not bad,” Lysithea said. Feeling egged on, she lifted her own hand, and a small handful of hot coals raised into the air. She began to juggle them around each other.

“Oh my! Yes, I see I will have to take it up a notch,” Flayn said. Several more coals began to rise up at Flayn’s command, and began to slingshot off towards the far end of the sauna before whipping around and coming back towards them. Flayn halted them in mid-air, then sent them back to the pyre where they had started.

“Yeah? You want to up the ante?” Lysithea said, laughing. This was a lot of fun!

And then, something shifted inside her. Her laugh caught in her throat, and she began to cough. Her blood felt like it was burning. Something surged up her arm, which was still outstretched towards the coals. There was a loud noise that she was only vaguely aware of.

Finally, her vision cleared and the coughing subsided. She looked sidelong at Flayn, who was staring at her, concern clear on her face.

Together, the two of them looked up towards the entrance to the sauna. The entire pyre of coals had been ripped out of the floor and flung forcefully through the wall, creating a large, shattered hole out into the monastery grounds.

“Oops,” Lysithea said.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lorenz takes responsibility. Marianne's final gambit. A daunting clash with a terrifying foe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Happy Lorenz week!
> 
> What's that? Lorenz week is long over? I completely missed it?
> 
> Well, enjoy this very special chapter anyway!
> 
> What's that? It's not a special chapter at all? It's completely average in every way? I utterly failed to do anything noteworthy for Lorenz week?
> 
> Well, uh...p-please enjoy anyway. *bows*
> 
> In all sincerity, this chapter was tough for me. It's the first one so far where I ended up deleting a good chunk of it and re-writing it because I wasn't happy with it. I'm still not sure if what I've written here is particularly coherent. But, well, I dearly hope you enjoy it, and as always, feedback is loved and appreciated <3

“We are not going to name names,” Seteth was saying to the assembled crowd of students. “What happened here was an unfortunate accident. However, as a result, the young men and women of campus will be required, for the time being, to make use of the same sauna.” He paused, his narrow eyes scanning over the crowd, just daring any hanky or panky to make itself known. “To ensure proper decorum is maintained at all times, a schedule will be posted outside the sauna indicating when the men may use it, and when the women may use it. There will also be faculty members nearby to ensure these schedules are adhered to. Please do not test my patience on this subject.”

The students were silent. Someone coughed awkwardly.

Seteth clapped his hands together, and gave a forced smile. “Please enjoy the rest of your sunday!”

The crowd began to disperse.

Lorenz stayed behind a bit longer, looking over the wreckage that covered the woman’s sauna. It looked as if some kind of siege weaponry had smashed through it. As if someone with a vested interest in peeping on girls in the sauna had brought a ballista to do the job. But that was ridiculous.

Yes, almost definitely ridiculous.

But then, what else possibly could have happened..?

Well, despite an undeniably gnawing curiosity, it wasn’t his problem to worry about. Surely if there was an actual threat to the safety of the students, the Knights would be taking care of it. He had enough on his plate to worry about with classes, training, and building his connections to the other noble students here.

He noticed two other students still lingering after the crowd had dispersed: Lysithea and Flayn. They were talking to each other in a low voice, and while he had no desire to eavesdrop, Lorenz made his way over towards them. He took a few deep breaths, stealing himself. It was time to start living up to his own idea of nobility.

“For the last time, I’m fine,” Lysithea hissed curtly to Flayn as Lorenz entered earshot. Whatever they had been talking about, the conversation quickly came to an end as he approached. Flayn gave him a genuine smile while Lysithea merely managed a polite nod.

“Ladies,” Lorenz said. “There’s something I want to say. To you especially, Flayn.”

They both looked at him, curious. Lysithea’s sour expression relaxed a bit.

“Flayn, the other night, I let my negative thoughts get the better of me, and vented my frustrations with Claude at you. It was not fair to burden you, our newest student, with that. And it is not fair to our class for me to be harboring such ill will towards our...leader.” He managed to gag out the word with only the slightest amount of obvious distaste. “While I still have my doubts about his method of leadership, I owe it not to him, but to all of us, to give him a chance. Everyone else has made it clear they wish to be a true team together. The least I can do is try to have the same mindset.”

“Ohhh, Lorenz!” Flayn said, her eyes growing wet with happy tears. “This is a hug moment. Come on in!”

“No, that’s not necessary--” Lorenz protested.

“Shh, it’s happening, don’t fight it,” Flayn cooed as her arms embraced him. “Lysithea? There’s room for more in this hugnado!”

“Well, it DOES look like it’s making Lorenz very uncomfortable, so okay,” Lysithea said with a smirk, hugging Lorenz from the other side.

“Alright, let’s all calm down, this is a bit excessive,” Lorenz said, his arms dangling in the air above the two girls. He was hoverhanding like he’d never hoverhanded before.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure looming. Seteth was watching this display of affection with an entirely unreadable expression.

Great, Lorenz thought. He’s going to kill me for hugging his sister. Well, I suppose I had a good run…

In truth, Seteth was watching the scene with some amount of joy and affection. He felt glad that Flayn was connecting with her classmates, and if she was going to develop a close friendship with a member of the opposite sex, he was glad for it to be that odd Gloucester lad with the terrible hair. He was, if nothing else, non-threatening.

Seteth allowed himself a smile. It would be entirely indistinguishable from a scowl to most others, but it was there.

With the embarrassing display of physical affection wrapped up, Lorenz, Lysithea, and Flayn made their way towards the dining hall, where the rest of their classmates had undoubtedly already begun gathering for breakfast. As they grew closer, they noticed a large amount of noise and chaos coming from inside than usual. Several students were angrily storming out of the hall, yelling and muttering incoherently.

“What is going on..?” Lorenz asked. His two classmates shook their heads, equally perplexed.

They entered the dining hall to see a long line winding between the tables, people still waiting to get their food. Others were seated with empty trays in front of them, loudly complaining about their hunger, or banging their fists or the trays themselves against the tables in protest.

“What is going on here?” Lorenz asked again. It was more of an automatic reaction to the mayhem than an actual question with the expectation of an answer, but one of the monastery workers nearby overheard him.

“That crazy lady won’t let anyone else cook,” she said. “It’s the breakfast rush, there should be at least four people preparing meals for everyone, but she just screams and hisses at anyone who gets close.”

“Crazy lady?” Lorenz blinked a few times, confused. Then horrible realization began to dawn…

He made his way towards where Claude and the other Golden Deer were sitting, Flayn and Lysithea following in his wake.

Raphael was sitting with his head down on the table, letting out a low groan. “So hungry,” he said. “I’m gonna die. I’m starving to death. I haven’t eaten in hours.”

“I’ll admit this is a bit of a conundrum,” Claude was saying to the others, who appeared to be looking to him for guidance. He turned and nodded at Lorenz. “Glad you’re here. We may have a bit of a...situation.”

Up at the front end of the dining hall, where the food was prepared and (usually) served, Marianne alone was rushing around, monitoring each cooking station in turn. She had several trays out ready to go, and parts of the meals were done, though she was clearly still waiting on a few finishing touches before she was willing to serve anyone.

Lorenz opened his mouth to say something, but he felt a tug at his sleeve. He turned and saw Lysithea there. She had grabbed Claude’s sleeve with her other hand.

“I think,” she said. “We should sit down and wait.”

“You sure?” Claude asked, apprehensive about the situation.

“Yeah,” Lysithea said. Lorenz and Claude exchanged a look, and Lorenz nodded. With that, Claude shrugged and took a seat.

They sat around a table together, quietly and politely, except for Raphael who still emitted the occasional low-frequency moan.

Finally, after a few more minutes, a general wave of relief seemed to ripple outwards starting with those at the front of the line. The Golden Deer all turned to look, and saw that Marianne had left the kitchen with a tray full of food held tightly in both hands. As she headed towards her classmates, the other chefs on duty quickly rushed in to fill the vacancy and begin serving the other students before a riot broke out.

Marianne’s tray was full of plates containing omelettes and rice. There were eight of them - one for each Golden Deer, minus herself.

She placed the tray in front of them all, stepped back, and bowed deeply.

“P-please enjoy,” she said, quietly.

Raphael was the first to grab a plate, and he began to eagerly dig in. Leonie and Hilda grabbed theirs next, followed by Ignatz, Claude, and Flayn. Lysithea grabbed the last two, and brought one over to place in front of Lorenz, who smiled in thanks, though he still looked more concerned than anything.

“Oh, Goddess, this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten,” Raphael said. He had already almost completely cleared his plate.

Marianne did not smile at hearing this, though she did blush.

“Yes, this is very kind of you, Marianne,” Lorenz said, still somewhat nervous. “Of course, you know it was not necessary, we do not require any kind of special treatment--”

“Please wait!” Marianne blurted out. She stood there awkwardly for a moment as they all stared at her, then showe bowed again. With her eyes slammed shut, she said, “I would like to be your friend as well, if it’s okay with all of you. I promise to do my part by cooking for you all every night, s-so as not to be a burden.”

Everyone else exchanged glances. Their expressions ranged from pity, to admiration, to fear that this lunatic was going to murder them in their sleep and wear their skin.

Claude looked back at them and held up a hand, making it clear that he wanted to be the one to answer her. Then he turned back to Marianne, who had peeked one eye open nervously.

“No,” he said.

“O-oh,” Marianne said, deflating.

“Claude, what the hell?” Lysithea snapped.

“Listen!” Claude snapped back. He kept his gaze focused on Marianne. “Marianne Von Edmund. You are forbidden from feeling like you have to cook for us every day to earn your keep. And no calling yourself a burden. If you are our friend, that means you are equal to us. And that means if anyone tries to trash talk you, we’re going to put a stop to it, even if that person is yourself.”

Marianne, and most of the others, looked a bit confused. Claude sighed.

“If you ask again, I’ll reconsider my answer,” he went on. “But not if you ask like a servant asking permission from a master. I want you to ask us as your peers and classmates, on equal footing.”

Marianne gulped. She took a few deep breaths. Then she nodded.

“I would like to hang out with you, and be your friend,” she said. “I think it would be...nice.”

“Ok,” Claude answered with a smile.

The tension in the air broke, and there was much cheering and clapping. Leonie and Hilda grabbed Marianne and sat her down between them, Leonie mussing her hair while Hilda gave her a powerful bear hug. Raphael gave her one of his spine-shattering pats on the back. Ignatz and Flayn thanked her profusely for the omelettes, and Lysithea asked if Marianne would like to split half of hers, since she didn’t have as much of an appetite as the others and Marianne had neglected to make one for herself.

Lorenz tapped Claude on the shoulder while the others were all talking amongst themselves.

“You handled that well,” he said quietly. “I’m pleasantly surprised.”

Claude grinned back at him. “I’ve always known I’m full of surprises,” he said, “but it’s nice to hear they can occasionally be pleasant ones.”

After a long, joyous afternoon spent hanging out together as a class, they eventually went their separate ways. Lorenz decided to head to the training grounds and work on his archery and lance forms. It was long, tough, and fulfilling exercise. He felt good, both in body and mind. Better than he had in a while.

Sure, he would still stay on his A-game and be prepared to steer Claude onto the correct path if he proved too unvirtuous, perhaps even step into the role of leader if Claude abandoned the Alliance to go off on some treasure hunt, which seemed like something Claude would do. Still, the decision to give him a chance, to treat him as a potential ally, not just a hated enemy, seemed to have removed a weight from his shoulders. That negative energy, that conniving cynicism...it felt like something his father would want from him.

It didn’t feel very noble.

He made his way to the sauna, whistling under his breath. Yes, this was the start of a bright new beginning. Things would be clear sailing from here on out.

“Oh! Hi, Lorenz. Did you forget to check the schedule?”

Lorenz stared at Flayn, who was standing in the changing room, smiling at him. She gave a slight giggle at his look of shock - and her breasts, concealed only by a thin cloth, bounced slightly as she did so.

His first thought was that they were larger than he would have expected.

His second thought was that now he was definitely going to die.

“Goddess!” he screamed, slapping his hands over his own eyes. “I’m so sorry! I forgot! Please, forgive my indiscretion!”

He could hear Flayn giggle again, accompanied by the rustling of her uniform being pulled back on over her head. He pulled his fingers apart to peek and saw that she was now back to a normal level of covering.

“It is okay, Lorenz!” she said. “I have heard these kinds of encounters are part of the true coming of age experience. I hope one day to participate in other iconic youthful misunderstandings, like hearing only parts of a conversation that lead me to an erroneous conclusion, or having to fake being somebody’s significant other but then we actually develop feelings for each other! Oh, such wondrous tropes!”

“Uh,” said Lorenz, whom she had entirely lost by now.

“But to think, I’ve skipped straight to being walked in on while in a state of undress. Ahh, how will this affect our relationship going forward? I have read the phrase ‘sexual tension’ but have never before understood the context! Indeed, I often thought it would involve rope and be a bit more literal.”

“I think we should just settle on, ‘pretend it never happened and move on,’” Lorenz suggested nervously.

Flayn grinned at him. “We will just have to see where the narrative takes us! Oh, how I do love being an adolescent,” she mused, striding past him.

Lorenz turned to watch her leave, but she stopped suddenly, and he looked up to see the figure she was now staring at.

Seteth’s eye twitched slightly.

“...I can explain?” Lorenz offered.

“Yes, I daresay you can,” Seteth responded. A hand lashed out and he grabbed Lorenz by the hair, and he quickly strode off, pulling the young man after him. Lorenz flailed his arms about, attempting to pry Seteth’s arm away, but it was entirely hopeless. The Archbishop’s assistant was cut like a diamond.

“B-brother, wait! It is not what it looked like! I was teasing him because we are friends! Lorenz did nothing wrong!” Flayn called out.

“Return to your room immediately, Flayn,” Seteth shot back. “I will deal with you once I am done with Gloucester.”

Seteth began pulling Lorenz to the north. Lorenz realized that Seteth’s office was in that direction, and that was probably where he was being brought, but he couldn’t help but remember that the bridge was also in that direction, and Seteth had told him just days prior that he would be flung off of it should anything improper happen to his dear sister.

“Please don’t kill me,” Lorenz managed to yelp.

“Luckily for you, the Archbishop frowns upon the extrajudicial murder of students,” Seteth replied. “However, a proper punishment will be meted out. I’m thinking ten canings should suffice.”

Lorenz blanched. He had been caned by his father in the past - not often, but enough times to know he did not want to experience it again, especially not at the hands of Seteth, who could likely snap Count Gloucester in half like a twig.

Marianne was in heaven.

They liked her. They really liked her!

Well, they really liked her pastries, and that was a good start!

“Go! Go! Go!” Hilda and Claude were chanting, while Raphael and Leonie were competing to see who could down the most blueberry cobbler. Raphael was winning due to sheer mouth size but Leonie was putting up a hell of a fight.

Lysithea was eating only one helping, and watching sadly at how much of the sweet goodness was being taken away before her eyes.

“Claude! Lysithea! Everyone! H-help!”

The noise in the dining hall died down as most eyes turned towards Flayn, who was running in as fast as she could, shouting and waving her arms over her head.

“Flayn! What is it?” Claude asked, rushing over and grasping her gently by the shoulders. “Is someone after you?”

“I-it’s Lorenz! He’s in danger!” Flayn gasped.

“Danger? What, did he leave the monastery grounds? Are wolves after him?” Hilda asked.

“Or...or a monster?” Marianne asked nervously.

“Did Nemesis come back from the dead and kidnap him?” Claude asked, clearly not taking this as seriously as the others.

“Worse!” Flayn replied. “My...my brother has him!”

“Oh, shit,” Claude said. “That is serious.”

“I’ll explain on the way!” Flayn went on. “But please, we have to go now! We have to stop Seteth from hurting Lorenz! He didn’t do anything wrong, but my brother is...he’s not going to listen to reason!”

“You all go ahead,” Claude said to the rest of his class. All of them - even Marianne - nodded in affirmation. “I have to get some things from my room, and I’ll catch up. Distract Seteth at all costs.”

He ran out the southern door of the dining hall without another word.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Hilda snapped at everyone. “We have to go stop Flayn’s sexy brother!”

“What?” Flayn asked.

“I said we have to go stop Flayn’s brother!” As the others mobilized, Hilda leaned in to Lysithea and whispered, “hey, how do my tits look? Enticing?”

“Uh,” Lysithea responded.

“Speechless, right? Yeah, they have that effect on people. Alright, let’s go!”

Seteth kicked open the door to the central building of the monastery, still dragging the struggling Lorenz behind him. The students they came across hurriedly got out of the way, knowing better than to get in Seteth’s way right now.

“You don’t have to do this,” Lorenz was still pleading. “I have learned the error of my ways! I repent!”

“Please meet your fate with some dignity, Gloucester,” Seteth replied. “You will serve as an example to all the young men around here who think of themselves as the cock of the walk. All will think twice before they look upon Flayn with impure eyes.”

“Brother! Stop this at once!”

The voice rang out across the hall. All other sounds halted. Even Lorenz momentarily ceased his struggling.

Seteth turned. Flayn stood in the doorway at the far end of the hall, illuminated by the fading light of the setting sun. The Golden Deer fanned out behind her.

Seteth released Lorenz, but pointed firmly at him. “Stay there.” Lorenz felt his legs wobble, and new fleeing would not be an option. Seteth then turned back once more and strode towards Flayn.

“I told you I would deal with you later, sister,” Seteth growled.

“You will deal with all of us now!” Flayn shot back, stomping her foot. “We are classmates, and as classmates, we leave no one behind! If you wish to punish Lorenz, you must mete the same punishment out to me - to all of us!”

There was a general half-hearted muttering from those around her.

“Wait, is that what we’re doing? I thought the goal was to stop Lorenz from getting punished, not to get punished with him,” Raphael muttered, leaning towards Ignatz. Ignatz gulped and gave a nervous shrug.

“Hey, Seteth!” Hilda yelled out, stepping forward. She had taken a page out of Raphael’s book and popped a few buttons from the top of her vest, allowing her considerable cleavage to be more easily noticeable. She struck a pose in front of Seteth and waited for his reaction. When there wasn’t one, she sighed but continued. “Flayn told us what happened. She explained that she was just messing around with Lorenz, for fun, because she’s enjoying her time here with us. These past few days with the Golden Deer have been some of the best in her life, because she’s been able to spend it with friends! Having fun! Messing around! Sure, we may be a bit weird,” she said, signaling to Ignatz, “or kind of stupid,” she said, signaling to Raphael, “or have obsessive personalities,” she said, signaling to Leonie, “or be neurotic wrecks!” she concluded, waving towards Marianne.

“Uhm,” Ignatz said.

“That’s a bit harsh,” Leonie said.

“Oh dear…” Marianne sighed.

“Haha, she called you stupid, Ignatz,” Raphael laughed.

“But!” Hilda went on. “We’re her friends. All of us are her friends. Even Lorenz, who may just be the weirdest, dumbest, most obsessive, neurotic mess out of all of us. So you may be able to cane our butts...but you will never cane...our friendship!” She slammed her right fist into her open left palm. Flayn burst into furious applause behind her, but slowly stopped when she realized no one else was joining in.

Seteth sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “I am, in fact, capable of caning your butts. So, if you’ll all form an orderly line outside my office, we can get this over with--”

There was an odd tinkling noise that echoed through the hall. Seteth looked down, as did everyone else.

A small canister had been rolled across the floor, and came to a halt at his feet. It sat for a moment, still and silent, and then, with a hiss of releasing pressure, smoke began to pour out from it.

“What the--” Seteth began, before he broke into furious coughing. He was vaguely aware of some commotion around him. He flung his arms out madly, intending to make a grab for Lorenz. “You will not be getting away that easily! You will pay for--”

He felt his hands grip the vest of his target, and he pulled them forward.

It was Claude Von Riegan.

“What’s up, boss?” Claude asked innocently.

The smoke began to clear. Seteth looked around. The hall was empty.

“Where did...how did…” Seteth babbled.

“No idea what you’re talking about,” Claude said with a shrug. “Someone must have dropped that smoke bomb in here and everyone had to leave in a hurry. Safety reasons, you know? No good to go inhaling that stuff.”

“You...this little plan changes nothing, you know! All you’ve ensured is that you get punished alongside your classmates!” Seteth snapped.

“I don’t see any classmates here,” Claude said, shrugging again. “Guess you’ll just have to punish me, right? I’m their House leader. I’m responsible for them. If they mess up, it’s my fault for steering them wrong, isn’t it?”

Seteth opened and closed his mouth a few times. “That...that’s not…”

“Hell, cane me a hundred times. Ten for each member of the class, and another ten to make it a nice round number. But let my classmates off the hook. Just this once.”

Seteth seethed, his hands flexing harder around Claude’s vest. He took a few deep breaths.

Then he relaxed his grip.

“Fine,” he finally said. “Your classmates are lucky that I am feeling amenable.” He paused, then added, “and that they have you. Not many leaders would take the fall for their subordinates like this.”

“Yeah,” Claude said with a sigh. “I know. It’s a curse, being a good leader…”

He followed Seteth without resistance.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lorenz and Lysithea share a nice moment. Lysithea remembers some less nice moments.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Sorry for the month+ long absence. Several keys on my keyboard broke (I may have complained about that in an earlier chapter description) but I finally got my laptop repaired this week so everything is back to normal. I decided this chapter would be nice and short, just to remind everyone that I'm still alive and this fic is still in progress. Thank you all so much for your patience, I love you more than Raphael loves ham.

As smoke erupted all around him, Lorenz felt himself grabbed by the arm and dragged away. His first fear was that it was Seteth, but the mystery figure was pulling him in the opposite direction from where he had been facing, which meant away from Seteth and his office.

Whoever was pulling him along was not being gentle about it. It must have been Raphael. Or worse...Hilda.

When they finally burst out of the hall and into the fresh air, the two of them coughed and wiped at their eyes.

Lorenz blinked away some tears and saw that it was Lysithea.

“Come on!” she hissed. “We can go lay low at the secret base.”

“The...what?” Lorenz asked, following her despite his confusion.

“You know, the room that Hilda set up!”

“Oh, that.” He pondered for a moment. “The secret base...isn’t that name a bit childi--”

Lysithea shot him a withering glare over her shoulder, and he realized that Seteth may not be the most dangerous figure in his life at the moment.

They continued the rest of the way in silence. When they finally reached their ‘secret base,’ Lorenz saw that, to his surprise, nobody else was there. They left the candles unlit and Lysithea shut the door behind them.

“Our plan was to scatter once we got you,” Lysithea said. “We figured Seteth couldn’t hunt down all of us. I said I’d grab you and lay low for a bit.”

“This is insane!” Lorenz snapped. “I’m sorry, I appreciate all you are doing for me, but...Seteth is the second most powerful man in the Church of Seiros! I can’t just hide under a desk from him for the rest of my life.”

“I know it’s...a weird situation,” Lysithea replied. “But it was Flayn’s idea. She said Seteth’s not going to be able to think rationally while he’s angry. That when it comes to her he just goes...berserk. Her plan is to talk him down, get him calm and thinking rationally again. Then you can apologize, without fear of being murdered.”

Lorenz groaned and moved over to the couch. He fell into it with a dull thwump.

“This is not how I saw this year going, you know,” he mumbled, his head in his hands. “I’m...I’m Lorenz Hellman Gloucester! I’m supposed to represent the future of the Alliance. The best and brightest our nation has to offer. I was proud, and upstanding, and noble. Now I’m literally sulking in a dark room so as not to be decapitated for perceived impropriety with a young girl. How did this happen?”

Though his head was still in his hands, he could hear the soft footfalls of Lysithea walking across the room. He felt the couch sag slightly as she added her weight to it, sitting next to him. Then he felt her hand rest lightly on his shoulder...and his chest tighten slightly.

“You remember when we first met? Back when we were kids?” she asked.

Lorenz was quiet for a moment, then he responded, “those two boys who were bullying you. I reprimanded them, as I recall.”

He could hear Lysithea chuckle, and her laughter brought some brightness to the otherwise dark and hollow room. “Yeah, fat lot of good it did us. They just started bullying us both. But I always appreciated how you stood up for me. It wasn’t easy, but it was the right thing to do. And ever since then, I’ve always thought...that’s Lorenz. He’ll do the right thing, even when it’s not the easy thing.”

“It is a noble’s duty,” he said, feeling some life come back into him. “One must always fight for what they believe to be right. Of course, that day I also learned that fighting is easier when you have the strength to supplement your authority.” He looked up, and turned to face her. “Whatever happened to those two, do you think? They were our age, but they do not appear to be here at Garreg Mach.”

Lysithea smiled faintly and looked away into the darkness. “Good question,” she said. “I suppose their life took them in a different direction.”

Much had changed in the past seven years.

Everything still hurt. Her body, her mind, her blood, her soul, all of it ached, as if it had all been ripped apart, reduced to their base particles, whacked with a mallet, and then reassembled.

She did, however, feel something beyond just the pain. She felt power. She had been told that had been the point of it all. That it would all be worth it. Her pain, her suffering, the deaths of her siblings, the torment of her parents, all of it would be worth it to create someone like her. Someone with power. True power.

Her parents were back in Gloucester territory, and she had accompanied them. Though they were terrified to let her out of their sight, this being their first trip abroad since the ordeals had ended, she had not been allowed into a meeting with Count Gloucester, so she found herself wandering about the grounds of the sprawling Gloucester manor.

Her feet, seemingly acting of their own accord, led her to the field by the stables. She watched, from a distance, as Lorenz trained in horseback riding and mounted combat with a lance and a bow, tutored by a special instructor hired to prepare him for the year to come at Garreg Mach. Lorenz momentarily thought he saw something, a pale white spectre observing him, but when he went to look directly at it, it was gone.

Just the act of walking was exhausting to her, so she had no desire to chat with Lorenz or be asked to join him in training. Plus, she...she was different now. Lorenz likely remembered a happy, pretty young girl with colorful hair and a bright personality. But now she was a bitter, damaged shell, and had the pallid complexion and dead white hair to back it up.

She was growing weary. Perhaps it was time to retire back to their guest room and simply wait in silent contemplation until her parents were done in their meeting?

“Hey, whoa! What are you, some kind of ghost?”

Someone was now walking beside her. A young man, only a few years older than herself.

She scowled at him. “Yes,” she said. “Boo.”

The boy smirked. She recognized that smirk, and suddenly a memory came flooding back. The day she had first met young Lorenz Hellman Gloucester - it was this boy, who had stolen her stuffed bear, called her a baby, made her cry and wail, powerless against his superior size and strength.

Now the look he gave her was...different. It slowly dawned on her that one other thing which had changed in the intervening years was puberty.

“You know, my parents are fairly important around here,” he said, trying and failing horrendously to seem nonchalant about it. “My father has the ear of Count Gloucester, everyone knows.”

“I’m very happy for you,” Lysithea said with the most sarcastic tone she could summon.

“I’m just saying,” he went on, keeping apace with her as she continued to walk, “you’re not bad looking, in a sort of...skinny serving wench sort of way. I know many girls who would love a chance to get knocked up by someone of my station.”

Lysithea rolled her eyes and looked away. A skinny cat was on a barrel in the courtyard, mewing pathetically for any scraps of food anyone was willing to spare. Lysithea walked towards it and gave it a scratch behind the ear, which it seemed to greatly enjoy.

The boy thrust out an arm and knocked the cat off the barrel. It went flying with a screech, then fled in terror off to another part of the manor.

“Do not ignore me,” he snapped. “I have power, you understand? That means if I want something, I get it.”

Lysithea slowly turned to face him. She felt something. Something she had felt a few times, during her long years underground. One of the few emotions that ever found its way to her during that time.

Hate.

“So, I am going to say again. A girl like you--” he went on, until a lance, apparently of its own volition, freed itself from a weapons rack, soared through the air, and impaled him through his right thigh.

Before he could scream, Lysithea’s hand was over his mouth, and such potent dark magic was oozing from her that the spot where her skin touched his began to bubble.

“Power?” she hissed. “You want to talk power? You have no power. There is only one power in the world. THIS!” Beside them, the barrel the cat had been sitting on exploded. Splinters rained down around them. “And if I ever find out that you’ve struck another animal who didn’t deserve it, or harassed another girl who just wanted to be left alone, I will come back, and I will rend you clean in half. Because I can do that. And THAT is power. Nod if you understand.”

The boy nodded, tears streaming freely from his eyes.

Lysithea removed her hand and left swiftly, back to her family’s guest room, leaving behind the boy, scarred and crippled, never to see him again.

A year later, in a dark room in a secluded corner of Garreg Mach Monastery, Lysithea smiled joylessly at Lorenz.

“Sometimes our lives just take us in different directions than we expected,” she said.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rivalries begin to heat up between the Golden Deer and the Black Eagles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a time when I thought I would be able to update this fic every two weeks. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. I suck, I'm sorry, but I hope you enjoy this moderately chonky chapter. Your reading/kudosing/commenting makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and I am eternally grateful!

And then, on Monday morning...class resumed.

Lorenz wasn’t sure what he had been expecting. The Monastery to come collapsing down on top of him? His father to show up and drag him away by the ear as all his fellow students pointed and laughed at him?

Instead, Seteth and Flayn had come by his room on Sunday, where Seteth had mumbled something, Flayn had jabbed him, and Seteth repeated a louder, clearer apology. Lorenz had been too dumbstruck to even respond, and Seteth hadn’t seemed keen on sticking around anyway. They had parted ways, just like that.

Claude was in class Monday morning as well. He was walking with a bit of a limp, but Lorenz half suspected he was exaggerating it to make him feel bad. Everyone was there, and nobody seemed to feel a particular need to discuss what had happened over the weekend.

Lorenz tapped a quill on his desk as he waited for Professor Byleth to arrive, mulling all this over. Since joining this particular band of misfits known as the Golden Deer, was wanton zaniness just his life now?

Dear Goddess.

And then there was Lysithea. Out of everyone, she was actually acting the most strangely since they had parted ways the other night. She seemed...cold, and distant. Lorenz wondered if he had done something to upset or offend her. He had thought their moment together in the secret base had actually been rather nice. It pained him to think he had misread something, or acted out of line.

“Sorry I’m late, everybody,” Byleth said, rushing through the door to their classroom. “I keep forgetting I’m apparently a Professor now, and apparently have to do things, and be punctual about them,” she explained with a sigh, dropping her bag of school supplies onto her desk, where it fell over and spilt half of its contents onto the floor. “However, that is a good segue into this week’s curriculum,” she went on. “It’s time you all start thinking about the directions you want your lives to take, so you can plan ahead and make sure you end up with a role you can truly feel at home in. You wouldn’t want to wake up in 10 years wondering how the hell you ended up with a teaching gig.” Byleth paused, staring ahead at nothing for a moment, then finally seemed to snap out of it. “Ha, ha!” she added, rather lifelessly.

“Uh...that’s pretty grim, Teach,” Claude said.

“Anyway,” Byleth went on, ignoring him, “last week we tested your aptitude with a number of skill sets and fighting styles. Hopefully that’ll help inspire you all, give you an idea what areas you want to specialize in, but the final call is up to you. I’ll help you achieve your dreams no matter how stupid and ill-fitting they may be.”

“I’m gonna be a wizard!” Raphael cheered.

“You sure are, big guy!” Byleth responded. “So, I’ll give you all the morning to talk amongst yourselves and figure things out, but I’d like to go over your game plans one on one during the afternoon class, after lunch. Remember, you’re all a team, not just in this class, but as future leaders of the, uh, whichever one you guys are,” she said.

“Leicester Alliance,” Lorenz answered, frowning.

“Right, yeah, that one. So, it’s no good if you all try to pull off in different directions without communicating. You all have different skills, and you need to work together if you want to win the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, and make the Alliance the best it can be.”

“Ha!”

The laugh echoed across the classroom. The heads of all 9 students turned. Byleth narrowed her eyes in irritation.

Standing in the doorway, his tall form eclipsing the morning sun behind him, was one of the students Lorenz vaguely recalled seeing around on the grounds. He wore the uniform of the Black Eagles class. He was very clearly holding as dramatic a pose as he could muster.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” Byleth asked.

A fire lit in the student’s eyes. He grinned, and a tooth sparkled. “I am so very glad you asked,” he said. He strode forward, spinning lightly on his heels, and landed a step forward with his hand on his chest. “I am Ferdinand Von Aegir! Eldest son and heir of House Aegir, centuries old home of the Prime Minister of the Adrestian Empire!”

There was a moment of stunned silence.

“Oh,” Byleth finally said. “Why are you in my classroom? Are you transferring in?”

“Ha! Oh! My goodness, but that is a hearty jest,” Ferdinand replied. “No, quite the contrary. Whilst walking by, I overheard your comment about this band of...how shall I put this politely… ‘individuals’ winning the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. I came to dissuade you of any such notions. It simply is not feasible!”

“And why is that, Mr. Von Eater?” Claude asked, leaning back in his chair and fixing Ferdinand with a smirk. Lorenz had to admit it was an effective taunt. Ferdinand visibly flinched at the mispronunciation of his name.

“Why? Because the Adrestian Empire is home to the oldest and most noble of bloodlines in all of Fodlan! Ours have been trained for centuries to achieve the pinnacles of greatness, and that includes feats both on and off the battlefield! Whether through combat or diplomacy, you simply will not be able to overtake us.”

Lorenz watched him, fascinated. Despite the self-congratulatory nature of his words, Ferdinand did not appear to be particularly smug while saying them. He just...believed this, with all his heart, to be true.

Most noble of bloodlines, eh?

“But it is not too late for you!” he went on, striding further into the classroom. Byleth quirked an eyebrow, but did not seem in a particular hurry to expel him from the room. In fact, she seemed incredibly amused. “Yes, I have seen one among you, and they have that noble spirit, the strength of character, the unbreakable will necessary to join our ranks in the Black Eagles!”

Lorenz chuckled. “I do appreciate the acknowledgment, however I am afraid I have no intention of deserting this class or my countrymen.”

Only after he had finished speaking did he realize no one was paying any attention to him. Ferdinand had strode past him, and knelt down before--

“Marianne Von Edmund,” he said, grasping the young woman’s hand. “I have watched from afar this week as your classmates have ignored and taken for granted your efforts on their behalf. Yet I assure you, one of your grace, beauty, and talent, would not go unnoticed or unrewarded in the Black Eagles.”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh…” Marianne stuttered, her face flushing a violently deep red.

“Hey, pal, you can’t just come in here and try to poach one of us!” Leonie snapped.

Hilda, who sat next to Marianne, spun around to face Ferdinand as well. “Yeah! And while yes, Marianne IS beautiful, by singling her out, you’re kind of throwing other, equally beautiful, girls in this class under the cart! Talk about rude.”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh…” Marianne went on, but nobody paid her any mind.

“Do quiet down, commoners, you are upsetting Marianne,” Ferdinand said.

“YOU’RE upsetting Marianne!” Lysithea snapped.

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh…”

Lorenz finally stood up and made his way over to Ferdinand, gently tapping him on the shoulder. Ferdinand turned to give him a disdainful look, which Lorenz countered by bowing gracefully.

“You will have to excuse the rabble,” Lorenz said in his most noble drawl. “They have difficulty grasping such delicate matters so quickly. I recommend giving them - all of us, in truth - some time to think over your proposal. Perhaps we can meet again over tea to discuss negotiations in a more refined setting?”

It was as if a switch had been flipped. Engaged in the banter of the nobility, Ferdinand’s boisterous, pushy demeanor mellowed almost instantaneously. “Hmm. What blend of tea do you propose?”  
Lorenz chuckled. “Southern fruit blend, of course. What am I, an Almyran?”

They both laughed heartily at that while everyone else looked on in confusion.

“Very well then. I will shelve this discussion for now. But I will be back! Once a nobleman sets his heart on a goal, he does not relinquish it easily! Fare thee well, commoners!” With a final flourishing wave, Ferdinand departed the room.

There was silence for a moment.

“Well, I can’t top that, so class dismissed until after lunch,” Byleth said, barely holding back her laughter.

“Wh-wh-wh-WHAT!?” Marianne finally blurted out.

Professor Manuela of the Black Eagles was a strong believer that some things could not be taught by a textbook.

Indeed, for a class filled with the future leaders of the Adrestian Empire, oldest and most storied land in Fodlan, learning how to interact with one’s peers in an unsupervised setting was arguably the most valuable skill of all.

That was why, she insisted, her occasional under-the-desk naps during class were for the student’s benefits. “Talk amongst yourselves,” she’d say, before slumping out of sight. “If you have any problems, you know, figure it out.”

Dorothea sat leaned back in her chair, her feet up on the desk in front of her. She was wearing a maid outfit, which students were permitted to do if they had cleaning duty. Dorothea wore that outfit a lot, however, regardless of where she was on the chores rotation. Something about commentary on her status as a commoner in a system as biased towards the monied elites as Fodlan was. Her classmates shrugged it off. Everyone had their little quirks.

She was manicuring her fingernails with a dagger, humming to herself.

“Hey, where’s Ferdinand?” asked Caspar, one of her classmates. “It’s not like him to be late for class.”

“How the hell should I know where that twerp is?” Dorothea snapped. She was deep in concentration trying to stab out a cuticle.

Caspar blinked at her in confusion. “Well, you’re always following him around, talking about how great and noble and powerful he is. I figured you two were close.”

“Ha!” Dorothea chuckled. “I’m just messing with him. Goddess, he eats it all up, but I assumed he was the only one too stupid to realize I’m being sarcastic. Glad to hear he’s in good company.”

Caspar rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’ll go bother someone else.”

Another of their classmates, Bernadetta, was sitting at her desk intensely writing in a notebook. Caspar took a seat down next to her.

“Hey, Bernie. Whatcha writing?” he asked.

Bernadetta quickly slammed the notebook shut. “Nothing! Nobody! I don’t even know who Bernadetta is! What!?”

Caspar held up both hands in a position of surrender. “Whoa, calm down! I’m just curious. You don’t have to share if you don’t want to.”

“S-sorry,” Bernadetta replied. “I get a bit self-conscious of my writing, especially when it’s not finished yet, but...I guess I could use a proofreader…”

“Yeah, I’d be happy to,” Caspar said. “I mean, I’m not generally much for writing, or reading, or words in general, but I’m pretty bored, so lay it on me.”

Bernadetta gulped and opened the notebook. She cleared her throat. “It’s called...The Man Who Learned to Fly.”

“Oh, nice!” Caspar said. “So it’s about a wyvern rider?”

“Don’t interrupt!” Bernadetta snapped. “Once, there was a man who yearned to fly. Every day he would look up at the sky and see the birds circling overhead, and he would wistfully sigh, knowing that was where he was meant to be. He began to put all of his energy into developing methods to fly. He trained his body, his mind, and his very spirit, confident that one day the secrets of flight would be his. His friends didn’t believe in him, and called him crazy, but he refused to give up hope! The dream of flight was all he lived for! Finally, it was time to prove everyone wrong! He climbed to the roof of the local church, over 60 feet in the air, prepared himself, and jumped! But humans can’t fly, so he fell to the ground, shattered his spine, and died. The end.”

Caspar stared at her.

“Holy shit,” he finally said.

“I-I told you it wasn’t finished yet!” Bernadetta snapped, clearly hurt by the reaction.

“Comrades, I have returned!”

Ferdinand’s voice rang out from the entrance to the classroom. He strode in, as regal and composed as ever - or at least that was the impression he wished to give off, anyway.

“My attempts to woo Marianne, the girl who had caught my eye, to our cause, has been forestalled,” he announced to the room at lage. “But not defeated! She will not be able to repel my noble charm indefinitely.”

“That’s, uh, great, Ferdinand,” Caspar replied, half-heartedly. He wasn’t entirely sure who Marianne was, but he knew how fixated Ferdinand could get when he set his mind on something.

“I daresay recruiting the best and brightest into our fold is one of the most important duties we have while here at Garreg Mach!” Ferdinand went on. “Not just for the trials such as the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, but to secure allies and underlings for the years and decades ahead. I can’t be the only one who has been attempting to scout those with some degree of potential, can I?”

At that, he set his gaze on one table in particular.

There sat Edelgard Von Hresvelg, future Empress of all Adrestia, alongside Hubert Von Vestra, her ever-present and ferociously loyal servant.

“Do be careful where you rest your gaze, Aegir,” Hubert said, his words slipping out like gas being released from a valve. “Or you may find your eyes plucked out one day.”

“Ha ha! You know I relish the challenge,” Ferdinand said. “Should your master ever deign to let you off your leash, I will be ready and waiting for a duel, Hubert!”

Hubert frowned. No matter how much bitter cynicism he tried to put out into the world, he just could not penetrate Ferdinand’s aura of unwarranted self-confidence.

“Instead of challenging your classmates to duels, Ferdinand, perhaps you would consider testing these opponents of ours? If you’re truly interested in recruiting, I wouldn’t want to have anyone even weaker than yourself in our ranks.”

That quip came from Edelgard herself, and was decidedly harder for Ferdinand to respond to. The future Empress had been reviewing a wide array of documents while the other students mingled, her concentration unbroken. And despite her often quiet and studious nature, she was known to be tough as nails in a fight. Ferdinand believed she was one of the few at Garreg Mach he would not be able to take down in a one-on-one duel.

“You jest, milady, but perhaps I will do just that!” Ferdinand responded, puffing his chest out. “Perhaps, after she sees me effortlessly take down some of her commoner classmates, Marianne - er, that is, anyone with true potential - will be more swayed to join us here.”

Edelgard sighed, and placed her quill down on her desk. The faint clicking sound it made echoed ominously through the classroom.

“No, Ferdinand, I don’t think you will,” she announced. “If the Black Eagles are to start challenging classmates to duels, I believe it is imperative for the sake of our reputation that our strongest be the one to initiate them. Do you disagree?”

“Well...no, I suppose not, but--”

“Does anyone else object? Caspar? Bernadetta? What about you, Linhardt?”

There was a groan from a bundle of robes in the corner of the room. Linhardt rolled over and glared at Edelgard. “You know I Could not possibly care less. Duels are so boring. Oh, so you can poke each other with wooden training swords, whoop-de-doo.”

“Hubert.” Edelgard’s voice was cold, commanding.

“Yes, your majesty?” Hubert’s voice was dripping with barely-concealed excitement. If Hubert was excited, it meant somebody else was about to have a bad time.

“Find me a suitable challenger for this afternoon. It is time this school year gets started in earnest.”

Lorenz ate his lunch with a general sense of unease. He couldn’t shake the feeling that an enraged administrator like Seteth or a crazed would-be rival like Ferdinand was about to fall from the sky, land in his soup, and attack him.

“Hey, Lor--”

“GAH!”

“Sorry!” It was Ignatz, who had come up to join his table for lunch. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Uhm...is it okay if I sit with you?”

“Ahem.” Lorenz tried to quickly regain his composure, and discreetly mop up some of the soup he had spilled on himself with his handkerchief. “Of course, Ignatz. I apologize, that was...not a very noble reaction from me. I suppose I am just a bit on-edge recently.”

“Things have been strange, haven’t they?” Ignatz agreed with a nod. “I wonder if every year is like this, or if we’re just living through a particularly weird time period.”

“I was pondering the same thing earlier,” Lorenz said. “You know, my father attended the academy when he was our age. Led the Golden Deer to a glorious victory in the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, as he tells it.”

“Wow,” Ignatz said. “That must be...a lot of pressure. Nobody in my family has attended, at least not that I know of. And they only really sent me here because I don’t think they knew what else to do with me. So if I screwed up, well, it’s not like they had many expectations to begin with. But you’ve gotta be pretty worried about living up to your dad’s legacy, right?”

Lorenz was silent a moment, studying his peer. Then he nodded. “That was quite perceptive of you, Ignatz. Yes. I do feel a fair amount of pressure to excel, not just from my father, but from myself. I have lofty ideals of nobility that I try to hold myself to. Sometimes I wish I had the utter certainty of that Ferdinand character.”

Ignatz chuckled. “I’m glad you don’t. We don’t need you becoming any more obnoxious.”

Lorenz responded with a playful gasp, putting his hand to his chest in mock offense. “Why, Ignatz, was that a quip? I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Suddenly, a harsh voice called out from behind them. “Hey, Glow-chest-er!”

Lorenz winced. Apparently the tactic was as effective on him as it was on Ferdinand Von Aegir. He spun around to see a Knight of Seiros he recognized. Thunder Catherine, they called her. She had spoken briefly with him on his first day, but since then he had only seen her from a distance, usually training with great intensity.

“It’s Gloucester,” Lorenz replied, the word rolling silky smooth off of his tongue.

“Whatever,” Catherine responded, clearly disinterested. She was holding a large rectangular box. “Got a package for ya. I know what you’re thinking, why is such a strong and important Knight on mail duty? Well, I don’t know either, so just take it and shut up.” She tossed it rather carelessly onto the table beside him. He flinched upon hearing something inside rattle about.

“A package? Who is it from?” Ignatz asked, leaning forward with curiosity. Most of the students had already received mail from friends and family back home, but a heavy package like this was a good deal more rare.

Lorenz was already opening the box. The first thing he saw was a note, which he read aloud for Ignatz’s benefit.

“Lorenz, enclosed is an object of some consequence, dating back to the earliest days of the Gloucester family name. Using it has helped me immensely over the years, including during my days at the academy. My father lent it to me as I now lend it to you. Only the most ancient and powerful of the noble houses have access to such artifacts, so it is imperative you make use of it to bring glory to the Gloucester name. Those of noble birth whom you will be competing against will no doubt be similarly using every advantage at their disposal. You are a Gloucester. You are a winner. Do not disappoint me. Count Gloucester.”

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Ignatz muttered.

“Hm?” Lorenz responded, too distracted to listen fully. He was already placing the note aside and extracting the main contents of the package.

“Oh, wow,” Ignatz said with a gasp.

The item was a crooked staff, fashioned out of a material that had the appearance and consistency of ancient bone. Four spikes extruded from the head of the staff. A hollow section in the center currently contained a crest stone, which lit up ever so slightly as Lorenz grasped the handle. It was reacting to his own Crest of Gloucester, he realized.

“I...I have never held our family heirloom before,” he said, his voice soft with reverence. “I did not expect my father would trust me with it already. This...this is…”

And then someone fell out of the sky and landed in his soup.

“I KNEW IT!” Lorenz yelled, leaping backwards. But the figure did not attack him. It just rolled over, groaning in pain.

“Oh, goodness! Sylvain?” Ignatz asked, rushing around the table to help put an arm around their fellow student.

Sylvain coughed, and used his knuckle to wipe some blood away from his mouth. Someone had clearly just beaten the daylight out of him. His unfocused eyes swirled around the room for a moment before finally settling on Lorenz.

“Goddess, sorry about that!” he sputtered. “I’m okay, I’m fine, really. I just think I got a minor concussion, so I couldn’t really see straight, so I sort of stumbled into your table. Sorry about the soup,” he added lamely.

“Sylvain, who did this to you?” Ignatz asked. “Were you jumped by a band of thugs?”

“No! Come on, it’s fine, it’s no big deal. Incidentally, could one of you just sort of grab my left arm and pop the shoulder back into the socket? I’d really appreciate it.”

Lorenz grabbed the arm and rather roughly did as asked. Sylvain yelped in pain but then let out a sigh of relief. “I’m afraid I must agree with Ignatz and request that you tell us who did this,” Lorenz demanded.

Sylvain sighed. “Look, it’s embarrassing, okay? I was challenged to a duel by a girl, and I figured, hey, this is a great time to sweep a lady off her feet both literally and figuratively, and--”

“By the Goddess, one of our classmates beat you this badly?” Lorenz asked. “Who?”

Sylvain looked around, then lowered his voice. “Edelgard, the leader of the Black Eagles. Apparently she’s looking for challengers to prove their worth, but the way she wailed on me, I think she wants to send a message that their class isn’t to be fucked with.”

Lorenz looked down at Thyrsus, which he still had clutched in his hands. He looked back up at Sylvain, then over to Ignatz. His classmate appeared concerned, clearly guessing what Lorenz was thinking.

“Where is she?” he asked.

Ignatz chased after Lorenz. “Hey, wait up! Are you sure this is a good idea?” he asked. “Not that I’m doubting you, but, uhm, Edelgard is pretty tough! I think she’s one of the toughest students here, maybe second only to Lysithea!”

Lorenz glanced at him. “Have you been ranking all of us?”

“I...find spreadsheets to be very calming,” he said. “But that’s not the point! The point is, you saw what she did to Sylvain! Are you SURE you can take her?”

“I am a Gloucester,” Lorenz said. “I am a winner.”

Ignatz paused in his tracks for a moment, then scurried to keep up again. “Okay, I see what you did there,” he said. “I guess with that relic you may have a chance. But maybe I should go get some of our classmates. I’d feel better if someone else was there with us…”

“Yes, I agree,” Lorenz said. “More witnesses to behold my triumph!”

Ignatz sighed and hurried off, still muttering to himself.

Thus Lorenz arrived at the training grounds alone, to see several members of the Black Eagles idling about. He had stashed Thyrsus away on his person - best to keep its existence a secret for now.

He vaguely recognized Caspar and Bernadetta from around the monastery. And there was Linhardt, looking rather annoyed at having been dragged along, as sleepy and disinterested as ever.

In the center was Edelgard, head of the Black Eagles class. She was getting a shoulder rub from a tall, pale man with greasy black hair that made him look like a menacing creature out of a children’s fairytale.

“Your majesty, I believe someone’s lost child has wandered in,” his words coiling around Lorenz’s mind and sending a chill down his spine.

“I heard you were looking for challengers,” Lorenz called out. But suddenly, facing five members of an enemy class all by himself, he didn’t feel quite as confident as he had moments ago…

Edelgard rolled her shoulders, signaling Hubert to step back. As she drew closer, Lorenz was struck by just how small she was, barely larger than Lysithea. Of course, he also knew how powerful Lysithea had become, so that hardly meant anything.

“Gloucester, yes?” she asked, pronouncing the name perfectly. “Your land is right on the border with the Adrestian Empire. Funny, if our ancestors had drawn that arbitrary border line just a bit further north, you’d be in the Black Eagles, not the Golden Deer.”

Lorenz chuckled, keeping his defenses up, ready for a strike at any moment. “An interesting thing to think about, but my family and I are steadfastly loyal to the Leicester Alliance.”

“Of course. I did not mean to imply otherwise.” Edelgard walked around him in a semi-circle, eyeing him up. “I have never believed that words should be wasted when action will do, so I’ll simply ask: are you here to duel?”

“I am,” Lorenz said. “I saw what you did to Sylvain, and felt it was rather excessive. I wouldn’t want anyone getting too big of an ego. We must all taste defeat sometime.”

Edelgard smirked. “I am not sure I agree. I do not think there is anything inherently wrong with avoiding defeat at all costs. But, suffice to say, I accept your challenge.”

DUEL: LORENZ VS. EDELGARD

Edelgard held up her arm and opened her fist. A training axe, thrown by Hubert, soared gracefully into her waiting palm. She gripped it tightly and spun around, facing Lorenz in a fighting position.

Lorenz - not having a second on hand to help him pull off something so badass - rushed over to the rack of training weapons and grabbed a lance.

“Interesting choice,” Edelgard said. “Everyone knows axes have an innate combat advantage over lances.” She rushed forward and swung the axe dramatically. Lorenz could feel the force of the swing as it whizzed by him, the power and malevolence Edelgard put into the attack. But he spun away, brought his lance around like a staff, and thwacked the back of her legs, causing her to stumble.

“Used like a common pikeman, perhaps,” Lorenz replied, backing up and spinning the lance in front of him. “But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, as my father would say.”

“Why the hell would you want to skin a cat?” Caspar called out from the sidelines.

“Shut up, Caspar!” Edelgard snapped, charging in again.

Lorenz thrust up the blunt end of the lance to parry her axe away. To his surprise, Edelgard let herself get disarmed, but did not stop her charge. She wrapped herself around his waist and tackled him to the ground.

Lorenz got back up. This was disorienting to him, because he hadn’t yet *tried* to get back up. No, Edelgard was lifting him - hoisting his entire body up and over her own head, at which point she slammed him with her full force into the ground behind her.

Pain exploded throughout his body. His lance slipped from his hands. He could feel the hard, sharp Thyrsus digging into him. He wasn’t even entirely sure which way was up. All he knew was that he had to scramble the hell away from Edelgard.

His left arm reached out and grasped for the lance again. Edelgard was back on her feet and charging towards him, but he managed to swing the lance up in time to press it into her chest and divert her charge.

Holding the lance with his left hand to keep his opponent at range, he regained his footing, pulled out Thyrsus with his right hand, swung it around in an arc, and launched a bolt of fire outwards towards the charging, screaming figure of Edelgard.

The sensation of magic coursing through him, enhanced by his family relic, felt euphoric. It was as if the staff were an extension of himself, the physical manifestation of his noble blood. He had cast spells during his training before, but none had felt so natural, so powerful, as--

“Augh!” Edelgard shrieked as the spell collided into her. She flew backwards and crumpled onto the floor. Lorenz watched her in shock for a moment before realizing she wasn’t getting back up.

“Alright, Lorenz!” came cheers behind him. He turned to see that Ignatz had arrived, accompanied by Hilda and Leonie. It seemed he now had his own cheering section comprised of two beautiful women and also Ignatz. Though he felt his heart sink a bit at realizing Lysithea had not arrived to see his victory.

“This duel...is not over…” Edelgard gasped, struggling to pick herself up off the floor, but the fire spell had left her too badly weakened. Hubert rushed over to help her get back to her feet, but she swatted him away. “I had you beaten in physical combat. If you wish to switch the magic, then I have the right to name a second to duel you, spellcaster to spellcaster.”

Hubert rolled up his sleeves, grinning as he slid forward.

But he was yanked back, and Linhardt stepped forward.

“Is that a Hero’s Relic?” he asked, pointing towards Thyrsus, still held in Lorenz’s outstretched right hand.

“It is,” Lorenz replied, feeling confidence fill him once more. “It is Thyrsus, the Hero’s Relic of Gloucester.”

“My word,” Linhardt said, letting out a wistful sigh. “If I win the duel, I get to study it.”

“Linhardt…? You actually WANT to duel?” Edelgard asked, incredulous.

“C’mon, Lorenz, rip his scalp off!” Leonie cheered.

“Ooh, Lorenz, you’re such a big strong sexy man!” Hilda cheered. Lorenz felt, as cheers went, they both somewhat missed the mark.

“Bash his face in, Linhardt! But, like, magic-ways!” Caspar cheered.

“Ooh be careful! His hair looks sharp!” Bernadetta cried.

“Very well,” Lorenz said, squaring off against Linhardt, as Edelgard and Hubert cleared the floor of the training grounds. “I accept your terms.”

DUEL: LORENZ VS. LINHARDT

Linhardt yawned. “Cool. You don’t mind if we hurry this up, though, do you? I’ve been awake for over three hours.”

Lorenz grinned, and brought Thyrsus up in a sweeping arc. “I am happy to oblige. Fi--”

“Bolganone.”

Lorenz felt the magic fizzle and fade away, not yet able to finish casting in time before Linhardt unleashed his attack. A wave of fire, far larger than what he had hit Edelgard with earlier, engulfed him. He screamed, flew backwards, and hit the ground, the back of his head bouncing off the hard tiles.

He looked up, dazed, and saw three transparent Linhardts walk towards him. When they finally drew close enough, they merged into one form, which bent downwards and plucked Thyrsus from his unresisting hand.

“Thanks,” Linhardt said, yawning again, and left.


End file.
